
Glass -OcdJ 
Book 



OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 



OLD EUROPE'S 
SUICIDE; or the 

BUILDING OF A PYRAMID 
OF ERRORS 



AN ACCOUNT OF CERTAIN EVENTS IN 
EUROPE DURING THE PERIOD 1912-1919 



By BRIGADIER-GENERAL 

CHRISTOPHER BIRDWOOD THOMSON 

(General Staff Officer at War Office, 1911-19-14 ; G.H.Q. France, 1914-1915 ; 

Military Attache in Balkans, 1915- 1917 ; attached as a British 

Military representative to Sup: erne War Council 

at Versailles, 1918-1919) 



" For History of Times representeth the magnitude of actions and the 
public faces and deportments of persons, and passeth over in silence 
the smaller passages and motions of ' men and matters.' "—Francis Bacon. 



LONDON : GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD. 
RUSKIN HOUSE, 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C. I 



<$> 



First published in 1920 



(All rights reserved) 



DEDICATION 

this book is dedicated to one 

i have always called 

"La Belle Sagesse,*' 

who greatly 

loves her country and her 

garden by 
the " Sleeping Waters." 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Preface 

Chapter 

I. (1912) A Day on the Danube . . . 

II. (1912) A View from a Window 

III. (1912) The Battle of Kumanovo 

IV. (1912) Macedonia 

V. (101249135 Albania 

VI. (1913) The Second Balkan War and the 
Treaty of Bucharest 

VII. Two Men Who Died 

VIII. (1914) Peace and War 

IX. (1915) The Neutral Balkan States 

X. Sleeping Waters 

XI. (1916) The Disaster in Kumania .. 

XII, (1917) The Bussian Bevolution and the 

BUSSO-BUMANIAN OFFENSIVE 



PAGE 
V. 



1 

9 

19 

33 
47 

57 
67 
71 
81 
95 
105 



123 
139 
143 



XIII. A Midnight Mass 

XIV. "Westerners" and "Easterners"... 

XV. (1919) The Peace Conference at Paris 157 

XVI. Looking Back and Looking Forward 173 



V. 



PREFACE 



Since the year 1912, the political evolution of Europe 
has been rapid. The period 1912-1919 will be 
memorable in history as one in which forces, at first 
diffused and without direct reaction on one another, 
as the issues narrowed were ranged in two hostile 
camps, and finally clashed in the Great World War. 
During this period, three dynasties have been over- 
thrown, three pivots of European statecraft have been 
removed, and yet, in 1912, their strength and per- 
manence were undisputed by the vast majority of 
human beings — not even the wildest visionary foresaw 
their swift and sudden downfall. But even had some 
seer perceived the writing on the wall, he would have 
shrunk back in dismay and prayed that the transition 
might be made more slowly from the eld order to the 
new. 

By their own acts the autocratic Empires perished 
prematurely; unscrupulous ambition, greed ,and false 
conceptions blinded their eyes to facts, they goaded 
their subjects into revolution and thus committed 
suicide, as a despairing warrior does who falls upon 
his sword. 



vi PREFACE 

This retrospect of the past seven years begins with 
the Balkan War of 1912; descriptions of certain events 
are given which to many readers will already be 
familiar. One justification for so doing is that the 
writer was a witness of all that he relates ; further, the 
endeavour has been made to link these happenings in 
their proper sequence, to establish a connection 
between cause and effect, to investigate the reasons 
why a universal conflagration ensued from a little 
Balkan War. The selfish intrigues of the Central 
Powers are contrasted with the equally vicious pro- 
ceedings of the Imperial Russian Government, with the 
ignorance and inertia which characterised Great 
Britain's Continental policy, with the weakness of 
France in the presence of the German menace, with 
the uncertain attitude of Italy. Comments are made 
en the diplomatic negotiations in 1912 and 1913, on the 
conduct of the war, and on the treaty signed on June 
28 in the Palace at Versailles. In some cases it has 
been possible to lift the veil which enshrouded 
diplomacy in South-Eastern Europe, to explore the 
mysterious labyrinths of officialdom, and, from the 
information so derived, to suggest an explanation why 
victorious democratic governments have failed to make 
a democratic peace. 

Criticism has been unavoidable, it has been made in 
the light of wisdom which comes after the event and 
in no carping spirit The sole aim of this book is to 



PKEFACE vii 

stress the more obvious errors of the past and glean 
from them some guidance for the years that are to 
come. These years will be pregnant with tremendous 
possibilities for the future of mankind, a burning point 
in history has been reached. At a stroke the old land- 
marks in Europe have disappeared. Six Great Powers 
no longer control the situation, no need exists for a 
" Balance of Power," the term has become odious, it is 
and must always be associated with a system which, 
by its constitution, was powerless to do good — under 
its evil sway the strong imposed their will upon the 
weak, small States were exploited and set against each 
other in internecine strife, peace was precarious be- 
cause peace treaties reposed on force and sowed the 
seeds of future wars. 

Such have been the errors of the past, errors induced 
by passions, prejudice, ignorance, guile and greed; in 
a figurative sense they form a pyramid, rising from a 
broad base of primitive emotions, passing through 
narrowing stages of artifice and intrigue, and culmi- 
nating in a point on which nothing can be built. Seven 
years of wasteful mad destruction may fitly be 
symbolised by a pyramid, a gloomy monument, taking 
up space, containing much material, useless save as a 
habitation for the dead. 

Unfortunately for civilisation, the Peace Treaties 
concluded in Paris, so far from laying the foundations 
of a nobler edifice, have set the apex on this figurative 



viii PBEFACE 

pyramid, have placed its topmost block.. The resulting 
situation is charged with elements of deadly peril for 
democratic forms of government — humanity has been 
disillusioned, hopes that a new world would arise from 
the ashes of the old have been disappointed, "plain 
people " everywhere are wondering whether immense 
sacrifices in blood and treasure have not been made in 
vain. Democracy has triumphed in a material sense, 
and yet, throughout all Europe, a state of moral 
anarchy prevails. Hatred and a lust for vengeance 
have usurped the place of charity and oommonsense, 
peoples mistrust their neighbours and their rulers, rich 
territories are unproductive for lack of confidence and 
goodwill. 

To seek a remedy for these ills by using force is to 
court disaster and disregard the lessons of the past. 
The malady is moral, and only moral remedies can 
cure it. Force was required and has done its work, 
but force is a weapon with a double edge, and plays no 
part in human progress. The Central Empires were 
the most efficient champions of materialism the world 
has ever seen, now they are humbled and in the dust; 
if Democracy attempts to imitate their methods it will 
lose that force which has proved stronger than auto- 
cratic governmental systems, it will betray its cause. 

To English-speaking men and women this book is a 
plea for the application of an Anglo-Saxon Policy to the 
problems arising from the war. By this is meant not 



PEEFACE ix 

a policy such as that which dictates our present 
attitude towards Eussia, Ireland, India or Egypt, but 
one based on our best traditions which are liberal and 
just." That policy would, from its nature, be straight- 
forward, and, to begin with, independent, it could not 
be constrained to follow the counsels of expediency and 
to pursue devious ways, but it could inspire and direct 
all future international bodies on democratic lines. 

Alphonse Daudet said of the British people that 
they had " firm shoulders ready to stand the weight of 
great responsibility," and this remark applies to all 
English-speaking men and women. We have incurred 
a great responsibility in Europe, we must take up this 
burden and become good Europeans. The first step 
in this direction is to inform ourselves. Questions of 
foreign policy can no longer be left to diplomats and 
experts who work in secret, these questions have a 
moral as well as a material significance for every self- 
respecting citizen, they affect not only his personal 
prosperity, but also the honour of the State. 

A large part of this book is devoted to the Balkans, 
the reason being that the last great conflagration 
started in those regions, which were and are storm 
centres, and may once again disturb the peace of 
Europe. The episodes described vary in character and 
cover a wide field, sketches have been interpolated to 
give a touch of local colour and stimulate the interest 



x PEEFACE 

of the reader in brave and simple peasant populations, 
But the same threads of thought run through all the 
chapters and link them in a kind of rosary, whose 
beads can be told each one apart, and be recounted one 
by one. 

LlTTLESTONE-ON- SEA , 

November 20, 1919. 



OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 



CHAPTEE I. 

A Day on the Danube. 

' When the snows melt there will be war in the 
Balkans," had become an habitual formula in the 
Foreign Offices of Europe during the first decade of the 
twentieth century. Statesmen and diplomats found 
comfort in this prophecy on their return from cures at 
different Continental spas, because, the season being 
autumn, the snow had still to fall, and would not melt 
for at least six months. This annual breathing space 
was welcome after the anxieties of spring and summer ; 
the inevitable war could be discussed calmly and dis- 
passionately, preparations for its conduct could be 
made methodically, and brave words could be bandied 
freely in autumn in the Balkans. Only an imminent 
danger inspires fear; hope has no time limit, the most 
unimaginative person can hope for the impossible 
twenty years ahead. 

Without regard either for prophecies or the near 
approach of winter, Bulgaria, Servia, Greece and 
Montenegro declared war on Turkey at the beginning 
of October, 1912. The Balkan Bloc had been 
formed, and did not include Bumania, a land where 
plenty had need of peace; King Charles was resolutely 
opposed to participation in the war, he disdained a mere 
Balkan alliance as unworthy of the " Sentinel of the 
Near East." 



2 OLD EUKOPE'S SUICIDE 

Bukarest had, for the moment anyhow, lost 
interest; my work there was completed, and a telegram 
from London instructed me to proceed to Belgrade. 
The trains via Budapest being overcrowded, I decided 
on the Danube route, and left by the night train for 
Orsova, in company with a number of journalists and 
business men from all parts of Rumania. We reached 
the port of the Iron Gate before dawn, and found a 
Hungarian steamer waiting; soon after daybreak we 
were heading up stream. 

Behind us lay the Iron Gate, its gloom as yet uncon- 
quered by the sunrise; on our left the mountains of 
North-Eastern Servia rose like a rampart; on our 
right the foothills of the Carpathians terminated 
abruptly at the river's edge; in front the Danube 
shimmered with soft and ever-changing lights ; a still- 
ness reigned which no one cared to break, even the 
crew spoke low, like pious travellers before a shrine. 
War's alarms seemed infinitely distant from those 
glistening waters set in an amphitheatre of hills. 

" How can man, being happy, still keep his happy 
hour?" The pageant of dawn and river and mountain 
faded as the sun rose higher; dim outlines became hard 
and sharp ; the Iron Gate, surmounted by eddying 
wisps of mist, looked like a giant cauldron. The pass 
broadened with our westward progress revealing the 
plain of Southern Hungary, low hills replaced the 
mountains on the Servian bank. A bell rang as we 
stopped at a small river port, it announced breakfast 
and reminded us, incidentally, that stuffy smells are 
inseparable from human activities, even on the 
Danube, and within sight of the blue mountains of 
Transylvania. 

My travelling companions were mainly British and 
French, with a sprinkling uf Austrians and Italians. 
To all of them the latest development in the Balkan 
situation was of absorbing interest, and they discussed 



A DAY ON THE DANUBE 3 

it incessantly from every point of view. Their 
attitude, as I learnt later, was typical, not one of them 
had failed to foresee everything that had happened; 
in the case of the more mysterious mannered, one 
had a vague impression that they had planned the 
whole business, and were awaiting results like rival 
trainers of racehorses on the eve of a great race. These 
citizens of the Great Powers were, in their commerce 
with the Balkan peoples, a curious mixture of patron 
and partisan. The right tc patronise was, in their 
opinion, conferred by the fact of belonging to a big 
country; the partisan spirit had been developed after a 
short residence in the Peninsula. This spirit was per- 
haps based on genuine goodwill and sincere sympathy, 
but it certainly was not wholly disinterested. There 
was no reason why it should have been. No man can, 
simultaneously, be a good citizen of two countries; he 
will nearly always make money in one and spend it in 
the other. Patriotism is made to cover a multitude 
of sins, and, where money is being made, the acid test 
of political professions is their effect on business. 

Listening to the conversation on the steamer I was 
astonished by the vivacity with which these self- 
appointed champions urged and disputed the territorial 
claims of each Balkan State in turn. Remote historical 
precedents were dragged in to justify the most extrava- 
gant extension of territory, secret treaties were hinted 
at which would change the nationality of millions of 
peasants, and whole campaigns were mapped out with 
a knowledge of geography which, to anyone fresh from 
official circles in London, was little short of amazing. 

From breakfast on, the babel of voices continued, 
and it was curious to note how the different nationali- 
ties grouped themselves. The British were, almost to 
a man, pro-Bulgar, they wanted Bulgaria to have the 
greater part of Macedonia and Thrace, some of them 
even claimed Constantinople and Salonika for their 



4 OLD EUBOPE'S SUICIDE 

prot6g6e, they were on the whole optimistic as to the 
success of the Allies. The French and Italians urged 
the claims of Servia, Greece and Eumania in 
Macedonia; in regard to Albania the French were in 
favour of dividing tnat country between Servia and 
Greece, but this latter suggestion provoked vehement 
protests from the Italians. The three Austrians 
hardly joined in the discussion at all, one of them 
remarked that he agreed with the writer of the leading 
article in the Neue Freie Presse of a few days back, 
who compared the Balkan Peninsula to a certain 
suburb of Berlin, where there was one bank too many, 
and where, as a consequence, all banks suffered; in 
the Balkan Peninsula, according to this writer, there 
was one country too many, and a settled state of affairs 
was impossible until one of them had been eliminated ; 
hp didn't say which. 

I asked whether a definite partition of the territory 
to be conquered was not laid down in the Treaty of 
Alliance. No one knew or, at least, no one cared to 
say. There seemed to be a general feeling that 
Treaties didn't matter. The journalists were in a 
seventh heaven of satisfaction at the prospect of 
unlimited copy for several months to come ; the 
business men expected to increase their business if all 
went well. On that Danube steamer the war of 1912 
was popular, the future might be uncertain, but it was 
full of pleasant possibilities. 

I thought of London and remembered conversations 
there three weeks before the declaration of war. The 
general opinion might have been summarised as fol- 
lows: The Bulgars were a hardy, frugal race, 
rather like the Scotch, and, therefore, sympathetic; 
thiey were ruled over by a king called Ferdinand, 
who was too clever to be quite respectable. As 
for Servia, the British conscience had, of course, 
been deeply shocked by the murder of the late King, 



A DAY ON THE DANUBE 5 

and the Servian Government had been stood in the 
diplomatic corner for some years, but the crime had 
been more or less expiated by its dramatic elements 
and the fact that it had taught everybody a little 
geography. King Nicholas of Montenegro was a 
picturesque figure and had an amiable habit of distri- 
buting decorations. In regard to Greece, there were 
dynastic reasons why we should be well disposed 
towards the descendants of the men who fought at 
Marathon, not to mention the presence in our midst 
of financial magnates with unmistakably Greek 
names. Lastly, the Turks. In London, in 1912, these 
people enjoyed considerable popularity; they were 
considered the only gentlemen in the Balkans, the 
upper-class ones, of course. Admittedly Turkish 
administration was corrupt and the Turks had a dis- 
tressing habit of cutting down trees everywhere, but 
their most serious defect was that they were a little 
sticky about affording facilities for Western enterprise. 
This latter consideration was considered really import- 
ant. Matters would improve, it was thought, after 
some changes had been made in the Consular Service. 

The war had come at last. Eew people in England 
knew its cause or its objects; many thought and hoped 
the Turks would win. We had played the part of 
stern moralists when a debauched and tyrannical 
youth received summary justice at the hands of his 
outraged subjects, but we watched lightheartedly the 
preparations for a struggle which would soak the whole 
Balkan Peninsula in blood. 

Night was falling as we passed under the walls of 
the old fortress of Belgrade. During the last hour the 
conversation had taken a purely business turn, about 
coal concessions in the Ergene Valley* and a French 
Company which was being formed to exploit Uskub. 

* The Ergene is a tributary of the Maritza and lies in Turkish Thrace. 



6 OLD EUBOPE'S SUICIDE 

Both localities were in Turkish territory but would 
change their nationality after the war, if the Balkan 
Allies were the victors. 

The steamer ran alongside the jetty; the journey 
was, for most of us, at an end. Everyone was in high 
spirits; the near prospect of dinner in an hotel had 
produced a general feeling of optimism in regard to 
the Near Eastern question. One felfc it wouldn't be 
the fault of anyone on our steamer if things went 
wrong. Our advice would always be given gladly and 
ungrudgingly, and we would accept any responsibility 
except that of putting into execution our own plans. 
We considered we were playing quite an important 
part in the Balkan drama, but, belonging as we did 
to big countries or Great Powers, once the fighting 
began we were forced to stand aside. 

Belgrade seemed half asleep already. The city is 
built on a ridge overlooking the junction of the Save 
with the Danube. From the quay a long line of white 
houses was visible, flanked at one end by the Cathedral 
and a dark mass of trees, at the other by a large, ugly 
building, behind which stands the , '.Royal Palace. 
Lights were few and far between, the aspect of the 
town was cold and inhospitable , this was evidently no 
busy centre eager to swallow up travellers and take 
their money; the Servian capital has nothing to offer 
to pleasure seekers, and sightseers must be content 
with scenery. Across the river, half a mile away, the 
lights of the Semlin cast a glare upon the sky, one 
could even hear faintly the strains of a Hungarian 
military band. 

Only three of my fellow travellers remained on the 
landing stage; they were Austrians. Two of them 
were going to Semlin in the steamer, the third was, 
like myself, waiting for his baggage to be disembarked. 
This man and I were to see a good deal of each other 



A DAY ON THE DANUBE 7 

during the months that followed ; he was the Austrian 
Military Attache" at Belgrade. 

The steamer whistle gave the signal for departure 
and farewells were exchanged. Just before stepping 
on board, one of the departing Austrians said, " Well, 
Otto, when next we meet I suppose the Tnrks will be 
here/' to which the military representative of the 
Dual Monarchy replied, " The sooner the better." He 
then got into his cab and drove off to the house where, 
for three years, he had enjoyed all the privileges due 
to his diplomatic functions. 

I had spent the whole day with a crowd of talkative 
and communicative men, but, as a rickety old cab 
took me up the hill towards the town, I remembered 
more distinctly what the comparatively silent Austrians 
had said than anything else that I bad heard. These 
men seemed to mix up private business and politics less 
than the others ; they gave the impression of thinking 
en big lines, of representing, a policy of some sort. 

In October, 1912, many "people still believed that 
the British Government had a Balkan policy. The 
war had been foreseen for so many years, its reper- 
cussion on Asia Minor and the whole Mohammedan 
world could hardly fail to be considerable, while the 
risk of the conflagration spreading, so as to involve 
all Europe, was universally recognised. Under such 
circumstances, it seemed incredible that those respon- 
sible for the maintenance of the British Empire would 
leave anything to chance. Of course, we British had 
a policy, but personally I hadn't the faintest idea what 
it was, nor, for the moment, could I think of anyone 
who had. 

At last the hotel was reached. A sleepy " con- 
cierge " showed me to my room, a vast apartment 
whose outstanding feature was its painted ceiling. 
This work of art was oval in shape and consisted of a 
vault of almost inky blue spangled with stars, round 



8 OLD EUEOPE'S SUICIDE 

which were cherubs and angels in appropriately 
exiguous costumes. The subject was perhaps meant 
to be a celestial choir, but the artist had somehow 
missed his mark; the faces were neither angelic nor 
cherubic; they wore an air of mystery not unmingled 
with self-satisfaction. The figures emerged in stiff, 
conventional fashion from the edges of the ceiling into 
the central blue, and, if it hadn't been for their lack 
of dress and look of conscious superiority, they might 
have been a collection of quite ordinary men. gathered 
round an oval table stained with ink. One of the 
cherubs bore a strong facial resemblance to a distin- 
guished diplomat of my acquaintance ; he was whisper- 
ing something in his neighbour's ear, and the latter 
seemed amused. The neighbour was a cherub, not 
an angel; he had a queer, wizened face of somewhat 
Slavonic type. 

I was tired out, but I did not sleep well. I had 
been thinking about British policy in the Balkans 
before I fell asleep, and had strange dreams which were 
almost nightmares. It was all the fault of the ceiling ; 
that cherub was so exactly like the diplomat and 
I dreamed he was telling the other one a secret, this 
explained the whispering, and that it was an important 
State secret, connected with my visit to Belgrade. 

Who knows? The artist who had painted that 
hideous ceiling may have done so in a mood of irony. 
He may have chosen, as models for his cherubs, some 
well-known personages engaged In propping up a crazy 
structure known as " the balance of power in Europe." 



CHAPTER II. 

Belgrade — October, 1912. 

A View From a Window. 

Mobilisation was nearly completed when 1 paid my 
first visit to the Servian War Office, an unpretentious 
building situated half way down a side street leading 
from the Royal Palace to the Eiver Save. On enter- 
ing, I congratulated myself that, at last, I was to 
meet and speak with a real Servian; hitherto I had 
met nearly every other nationality in the legations,, 
hotels, and other places frequented by visitors to 
fcreign capitals. At the time of my visit, the only 
society in Belgrade consisted of foreign diplomats ; the 
hotels were managed and staffed by Austrians, Swiss 
and Italians; the roads were being paved by art 
Austrian contractor, employing Austrian workmen 
and, according to current gossip, the country was 
being ruled by the Russian Minister. 

Now that hostilities were imminent, I presumed 
that the Servians would be allowed to do their own 
fighting. This supposition proved to be correct, the 
Great Powers had decided not to interfere in what 
was a purely Balkan struggle, they intended to keep 
the ring and see fair play. 

So much I had already learned in Belgrade, from 
people in a position to know and who seemed to know 
most things except the authentic Plan of Campaign. 
Their resentment at not being given this was evident, 
and when asked the reason, they would reply that 

9 



10 OLD EUEOPE'S SUICIDE 

they wanted to communicate it to their respective 
governments and War Offices, in the strictest con- 
fidence of course. The Servian General Staff had kept 
their secret well, far too well for the cosmopolitan 
band who earned their living by acquiring and circu- 
lating strictly confidential information. I did not 
expect to solve the mystery myself, but the prospect 
of getting to close quarters with its authors gave me 
some satisfaction. I had begun to admire these men 
one never met, who didn't seem to ask for advice, 
though they often got it, and who were shouldering 
the responsibility for Servia's future action. 

After being conducted to an upstairs room, I was 

asked to wait, Colonel (then followed two names 

which I didn't quite catch, but noted mentally as 
beginning, respectively, with a "G" and a " P ") 
begged to be excused for keeping me waiting, but 
would come as soon as he could ; an unexpected visitor 
had arrived whose business was urgent. This informa- 
tion was imparted by a young staff officer, in excellent- 
German, his message given, he left me alone with 
some straight-backed chairs, a table with a green 
baize cover, three pictures, and a large bow window 
facing north. 

The pictures were poor. One was a portrait of King 
Peter, whose brilliant uniform recalled a play I had 
seen just before leaving London. Another repre- 
sented a battle between Servians and Turks, dagger 
and axe were being used freely, the ground was strewn 
with dead and wounded, horsemen were riding over 
foe and friend alike, some at a dignified walk, others 
galloping madly, but all seemed equally indifferent to 
the feelings of the men on the ground. The meeting 
between Wellington and Blucher after Waterloo, as 
conceived by a nineteenth-century artist, was child's 
play compared to this battlepiece. The third picture 
portrayed three horsemen in rich attire riding abreast 



A VIEW FEOM A WINDOW 11 

along a woodland glade followed by their retainers. 
The scene was historical; it was the last ride of the 
centre horseman, a former reigning prince, whose 
companions, and incidentally his kinsmen, had 
assassinated him in that very glade. 

These pictures were only too typical of Servia's past 
history ; they explained the worn, anxious > expression 
on the old King's face and, seen for the first time on 
the eve of yet another war, gave food for reflection. 
Human nature seemed unchanging and unchangeable ; 
history was about to repeat itself in battles and 
murder, hatred and anger, suffering and death. 
Modern weapons would replace the dagger and the 
axe and the men on horseback would be provided with 
motor cars : these would be the only differences. ^ 

It is usually better to ride than to walk. Philoso- 
phers, as a rule, prefer the latter form of progression; 
perhaps that is why so few of them have been kings 
and why cities so seldom ' rest from their evils." 

My sole remaining distraction was the window. It 
commanded a wide view over the Save and Danube 
valleys and looked straight down on the great railway 
bridge which links Servia with Central Europe. At 
the far end of the bridge a Hungarian sentry was 
clearly visible, and all along the Save's Hungarian 
bank were earthworks and searchlights. Away to the 
right, and about a mile distant, were the barracks of 
Semlin; rumour said they were full to overflowing. 

Austria -Hungary was watching her small Southern 
neighbour mobilise and taking a few precautionary 
measures, in order, no doubt, to be in a better position 
to keep the ring. 

Standing at the open window in that quiet room, 
I felt I was learning more about Servia's real position 
than could possibly have been gleaned from all the talk 
on the Danube steamer. Perhaps it was the instinct 
of an islander, but, as I looked across the river, I had 



12 OLD EUBOPE'S SUICIDE 

a feeling of vague uneasiness, amounting almost to 
physical discomfort; an immensely greater force was 
there, passive but watchful, and it was so near, within 
easy range of field artillery. 

I remembered being taken in my childhood to see 
the snakes fed at the Zoo. Two monster reptiles lay 
motionless in a glass case. Some live rabbits were 
inserted, and at once began to frisk lightheartedly 
round their new quarters. Suddenly one of the 
reptiles raised its head; all movement ceased for a 
brief moment; each, rabbit crouched, paralysed by 
terror ; the dry, merciless eyes of the python travelled 
slowly round the cage, his mate stirred expectantly, 
and then ! The horrid, darting jaws did their work — 
one by one those poor rabbits disappeared. I recol- 
lected having been especially sorry for the last one. 
In Central Europe, at least one python State lay north 
of the Danube, and to the south were rabbit States, 
embarking on a ghastly frolic. 

Bathed in bright October sunlight, the scene before 
me was both varied and splendid. The town lay 
immediately below, beyond it the river and vast spaces 
framed by mountains, some of them so distant that 
their presence was suspected rather than perceived. 
The line of junction between the Save and Danube 
was clearly defined, the white waters of the former 
confounding themselves reluctantly with the Danube's 
steely blue. Both rivers seemed to tell a story; the 
Save told of mountains, of turbulent, oppressed 
peoples and their hopes and fears ; the Danube of plains 
and rich cities, of old Europe's last triumph over 
Islam, of heroes and conquerors, its broad stream 
carried the echoes of Ulm and Eatisbon, Vienna and 
Buda Pesth. 

Here, at Belgrade, the great river seemed to have 
found a new task — the task of dividing an ancient 
empire with immemorial traditions from new States 



A VIEW FEOM A WINDOW 13 

and young peoples, who still retained a bitter memory 
of the Turkish yoke. Here began a divided allegiance, 
an unnatural schism between North bank and South. 
It was as though the Save had brought down trouble 
from the mountains; the white line of foam which 
marked the meeting of the waters was a symbol, 
a symbol of eternal discord between the past and 
present. 

The door opened and a short, thick-set man in the 
uniform of a Colonel of the Servian General Staff 
entered the room ; he spoke in German, but with some 
difficulty, and excused himself for having kept me 
waiting. Then followed the usual commonplaces, in 
which he expressed his admiration for the British 
character and our free institutions, while I assured 
him of the deep interest taken by all classes at home 
in the future prosperity and development of Servia. 

I asked about the mobilisation, and he answered that 
it had astonished even the most optimistic; 98 per 
cent, of the reservists had joined the colours, many 
of them bringing carts and bullocks as free-will 
offerings. The declaration of war had been received 
with boundless enthusiasm by the peasants, and 
volunteers were nocking in from every part of the 
kingdom. The field army was well equipped. The 
question of transport had presented many difficulties, 
but had been solved by ruthlessly cutting down every 
human requirement to the absolute minimum; this 
was possible, he explained, because the Servian 
peasant soldiers could live on very little, but I would 
see for myself before long. Ammunition? For the 
first time he hesitated. Yes, there was enough for a 
short campaign, if the strictest economy were exer- 
cised — for six months, perhaps ; but it was difficult to 
estimate expenditure as, except for the Manchurian 
war, there were no data to go on. I suggested that 
stocks could be renewed. He flushed a little and 



14 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

replied that most of Servia's arms and ammunition 
came from Austria. 

Unconsciously, on my part anyhow, we had moved 
to the window, and while the Colonel was talking I 
noticed the almost uncanny frequency with which his 
eyes sought the far bank of the Save. Such restless 
eyes they were, light grey in colour. One could 
imagine them blazing with anger, but occasionally one 
caught a hunted look, as though they had known fear. 

Colonel G P , like most Servian officers, was 

of peasant origin. The King himself was the grandson 
of a swineherd. There had been a time in Servia 
when every man, who could, had transferred his 
family and household goods to what is now called 
Montenegro, so great had been their terror of the 
Turks. The poorer peasants had remained and had 
borne the tyrant's yoke; their descendants, of either 
sex, retained the furtive, quailing glance of ancestors 
who had lived in dread. Even the little children had 
this look of atavistic fear. 

The grey eyes softened when he spoke of the 
peasants, their simplicity, their endurance, and their 
faith in ultimate victory; his one idea seemed to be 
to give a fair chance to these peasant soldiers; to 
avoid political complications at home and abroad and, 
above all, to get the ammunition up to the front line. 

I looked instinctively across the river; the key of 
the whole situation was there. He must have guessed 
my thoughts, for the conversation turned at once to 
more general questions. The Colonel was convinced 
that the Great Powers would not interfere; their 
neutrality might even be benevolent. He had just 
received from the Austrian Military Attache* (the 
visitor who had kept me waiting) most satisfactory 
assurances in regard to the supply of ammunition. 
Belgrade would be entirely denuded of troops, as also 
the whole northern frontier. This had been rendered 



A VIEW FEOM A WINDOW U 

possible by the assurance that there was no danger 
of interference from the North ; a Servian force would 
occupy the Sanjak of Novi Bazar! He noted my 
surprise, and added quickly, " With the full knowledge 
of the Austro -Hungarian Government." The main 
army would advance on Uskub (he gave the town its 
Servian name of Skoplje). On its left v would be a 
mixed Serbo-Bulgar army, and on its right the Third 
Servian Army under one of their best generals. All 
the three armies would converge on Uskub, near which 
there would probably be the first big battle. Uskub 
was the first objective. He insisted that it was a 
genuine Servian town. The Emperor Dushan had 
held his Court there in the great days of old Servia. 
Further south lay Monastir and Salonika, the real 
prizes; of these he did not speak, and I refrained from 
putting inconvenient questions. I had learned so 
much already. 

A chance reference to Servia 's economic and indus- 
trial situation provoked an almost passionate outburst 
from this hitherto self-contained man. Servia needed 
a port; it was the only means of gaining economic 
independence. Hitherto, Austria had held Servia by 
the throat, but with an outlet to the sea his country 
could work out its own salvation. He reeled off some 
astounding statistics in regard to the population of the 
eastern Adriatic seaboard between Trieste and Mon- 
tenegro. I ventured to suggest that Austria would 
not lightly relax her hold on such valuable possessions — 
as Cattaro, for example. He assented, but repeated 
with vehemence, " Servia 's first economic objective 
must be an Adriatic port," Durazzo or San Giovanni 
di Medua would do — to begin with. When I enquired 
how it was proposed to deal with the Albanians, an 
ugly, cruel look crept into his face as he hissed out a 
German slang expression for extermination. The 
Albanians were, in his opinion, nothing more nor less 



1G OLD EUEOPE'S SUICIDE 

than thieves and murderers for whom there was no 
place in the Peninsula. 

I was beginning to understand. The war about to 
commence was only the first phase; success would 
give to Servia sufficient territory and economic 
independence to enable her to prepare for a greater 
and inevitable struggle with Austria-Hungary. The 
pitfalls were many. No one realised the difficulties 
more fully than the man standing with me at that 
window, who was even anxious to expose them in his 
eagerness to gain a little sympathy. He knew that 
wise and wary statesmanship would be required in 
handling the Bulgarian question. The hot-heads at 
home would ha\e to be restrained. At all costs peace 
with Bulgaria would have to be maintained, and this 
would be difficult. Servia had her megalomaniacs 
who were impatient and heedless of prudent counsels, 
whose aspirations in regard to national aggrandisement 
were boundless, who wanted to do everything at once 
and brooked no delay. 

Almost two hours had passed, and it was nearly 
noon when I rose to say farewell. While expressing 
my best wishes for Servians success in this first phase 
of her great adventure, I remarked that, presumably, 
Belgrade would cease to be the capital after Uskub 
had been taken and the Albanian coastline reached — 
a more central and less exposed position seemed 
desirable for the Royal residence and seat of Govern- 
ment. His answer was emphatic — Belgrade must 
always remain the capital, the Save was not the 
northern frontier of old Servia; all that — and He waved 
his hand towards the north — was Servian territory 
ri^ht up to and beyond Karlovci, which, at one time, 
had been in the diocese of a Servian bishop. 

When I left the Servian War Office that day I had 
forgotten all about rabbits and pythons; those dauby 
pictures portrayed the past, the future was the only 



A VIEW FEOM A WINDOW 17 

thing that mattered. A passionate drama would 
shortly enact itself under the eyes of a cynical, un- 
believing Europe; in that drama Servia would play 

a leading part and, if Colonel G P was typical 

of his countrymen, the final act would find another 
setting than the Balkans. Erom an open window this 
man had looked out upon a. spacious and inspiring 
scene, had caught its message, and, no more a mere 
official speaking a foreign tongue, had found the rugged 
eloquence of a true soldier-statesman. He might have 
been a Servian Cromwell; such men are dangerous to 
their oppressors. 

An irresistible craving for quiet and solitude had 
overcome me. I drove to a place on the outskirts of 
Belgrade close to the Danube's bank, and walked 
down to the river's edge across flat, waterlogged 
meadows. At this point, the troubled Save had found 
peace in the greater stream, a mighty volume of 
water slid smoothly past the sedges, whispering 
mysteriously; sometimes the whisper swelled, and 
weed and wave, stirred by a passing breeze, filled the 
surrounding space with sighing sounds. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Battle of Kumanovo. 

Although the Balkan bloc of 1912 was formed by men 
whose motives were as various as their interests and 
personalities, it was based on a correct appreciation 
of the general situation. It offered a prospect of 
relieving the intolerable tension which prevailed in the 
Balkan Peninsula at the expense of the Ottoman 
Empire, an Empire whose natural frontier was in 
Turkish Thrace,* and whose administration in South - 
Eastern Europe had been both wasteful and tyrannical. 
A continuance of Turkish sovereignty in Macedonia 
and Albania had become an anachronism. Justice, 
however wild, demanded the expulsion of the Turks, 
and all who knew the history of the Balkans approved 
the action of the Allied States. 

Not only did the creation of this bloc bid fair to 
provide a solution of purely Balkan questions. While 
it lasted it could not fail to have a stabilising influence 
in the "Balance of Power" in Europe. From a 
military point of view, the combined forces of Bul- 
garia, Servia and Greece were a far from negligible 
factor; they would have served both as a buffer 
between Slav and Teuton and as a deterrent to the 
ambitions of Pan-Grermans and Pan- Slavs alike, 
Erom this combination of the Balkan States the 
Western European Powers had everything to gain. 

In the autumn of 1912 an oligarchy of schemers and 
mediocrities held the reins of power in Constantinople. 

*0n the Encs-Midia line, thus leaving Constantinople in Turkish 
hands with a small hinterland in Europe. 

19 



20 OLD EUKOPE'S SUICIDE 

Their position was precarious, their inexperience great ; 
to a large extent they were dependent on the goodwill 
of the Great Powers, from whom they sought advice. 
The advice given, though inspired by very different 
motives, had the same effect: it increased the self- 
satisfaction of the " Young Turks " and gave them 
a sense - of security which was wholly unjustified by 
the circumstances of the case. 

Great Britain and France posed as indulgent friends 
of the new regime in Constantinople, whose liberal 
professions seemed to announce a moral convalescence. 
Loans were to be the solvent of all difficulties. Under 
their quickening influence regeneration and reform 
would blossom in a desert air, while interests and ideals 
would march hand in hand. The policy of the French 
and British Governments was, in essence, the main- 
tenance of the status quo. Both counselled moderation 
in all things, with the possible exception of concessions 
to certain financial groups. The " Young Turks" 
listened dutifully, as people do who are looking for 
a loan. 

Austro-Hungarian policy aimed at fomenting dis- 
order in Macedonia and Albania, with the object of 
justifying intervention and eventually annexation. 
These two Turkish provinces were to share the fate of 
Bosnia and Herzegovina. Their acquisition would 
complete the economic encirclement of Servia and 
reduce that country to the position of a vassal State. 
Behind Austria-Hungary stood Germany, whose com- 
munications with Asia Minor needed a buttress in the 
Balkans. The final object of the Central Empires 
was the disintegration of Turkey in Europe. In the 
autumn of 1912, however, the Turkish plums were not 
yet ripe for plucking; a few more years of misrule 
were required. In the meantime, the Austro- 
Hungarian and German Governments encouraged, 
secretly, the process known as " Ottomanisation " in 



THE BATTLE OF KUMANOVO 21 

Macedonia and Albania, with all its attendant ills. 
The Young Turks listened gladly ; such advice appealed 
to their natural and traditional instincts. 

At this period the vision of Italian statesmen hardly 
extended beyond the Eastern Adriatic seaboard. 
Moreover, Italy was a member of the Triple Alliance 
and held a merely watching brief in and around 
Con stantinople . 

Alone among the Great Powers, Russia was in close 
touch with the Balkan situation. For some years 
Russian diplomats and military agents had possessed 
preponderating influence in all the Balkan capitals; 
they had appreciated the scope and intensity of the 
smouldering passions which, however transitorily, were 
to force into concerted action the Bulgars, Serbs and 
Greeks; they alone had estimated correctly the military 
efficiency of the armies of the Balkan. States and, 
almost alone, they knew the contents of the Secret 
Treaty, signed in February, 1912, which brought into 
existence the Balkan bloc. Russian policy was 
definitely anti-Turk : it aimed at the fulfilment of the 
testament of Peter the Great, at the expulsion of the 
Turks from Europe, at the establishment of Russian 
sovereignty over the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn. 
It is an old saying that diplomatists are paid to lie 
abroad for the benefit of their countries; successive 
Russian ambassadors at Constantinople plied the 
Sublime Porte with soothing words; all was for the 
best in the best of all possible Turkeys, while plots 
matured and hostile armaments were perfected. The 
Yung Turks listened somewhat fearfully; it seemed 
too good to be true, but still they listened and 
believed. 

False counsel reacting on inertia had an inevitable 
result; the declaration of war found the Ottoman 
Empire utterly unprepared. The mobilisation of the 
Balkan armies was completed with unexpected 



22 OLD EUEOPE'S SUICIDE 

rapidity and was followed by a simultaneous invasion 
of Turkey in Europe by Bulgarian, Greek and Servian . 
forces. The Bulgars crossed the frontier of Thrace, 
without encountering serious opposition, and advanced 
towards the line Adrianople-Kirk Kilise; the Greeks 
entered Southern Macedonia, where the Turkish 
garrisons were weak and scattered ; the Serbs invaded 
the Vilayet of Kossovo and joined hands with the 
Montenegrins in the Sanjak of Novibazar. At every 
point the Balkan armies had penetrated into 
Turkish territory. In Constantinople confusion reigned 
supreme ; disasters were exaggerated, sinister rumours 
passed from lip to lip, even the shrine dedicated to 
the " Divine Wisdom "f was not considered safe. 

The Russian Government looked on complacently 
— its plans were taking shape. In London and Paris 
curiosity was more in evidence than any emotion 
which might have been dictated by knowledge or 
foresight. In Vienna and Berlin the news was 
received with anger and astonishment; better things 
had been expected from King Ferdinand of Bulgaria. 
The stubborn fact remained, however, and called for 
immediate action. A German military mission had 
for some years directed the training of the Turkish 
army; the time had now come for that mission to 
direct Turkish strategy. Events had moved too 
quickly for the cynical, realistic policy of the Central 
Empires, but they could be turned to good account if, 
at the outset of the campaign, the Serbs were crushed. 
And so, while yielding ground in Thrace and Southern 
Macedonia, the Turks massed troops at Uskub, and, 
made their plans for an offensive battle against the 
Serbs advancing southwards into Kossovo. 

My lot had been cast with the Servian forces and, 
by great good fortune, I was able to join the First 

t Santa Sofia. 



THE BATTLE OF KUMANOVO 23 

Army as it poured through the defiles of the Kara 
Dagh into the region called "Old Servia." At 
Belgrade the talk had been of a war of liberation from 
economic thraldom, of a conflict between the Crescent 
and the Cross; with the armies it was otherwise. No 
thought of policy or secret treaties, or even of religion, 
confused the minds of Servia's peasant soldiers; they 
marched like men called to fulfil their country's 
destiny, singing the story of their race, making the 
mountains echo with their martial songs. There was 
no need to understand their language to catch the 
meaning of these singers; they sang of sorrow and 
tribulation, of centuries of helplessness in oppression, 
but the note of defiance was never absent ; defeat was 
admitted but never despair. Something unconquer- 
able was in their hearts, stirring their blood and nerving 
every muscle — the spirit of revenge. Bacon, in his 
famous essay, says: "The most tolerable sort of 
revenge is for those wrongs which there is no law to 
remedy." The Serbs had five centuries of wrongs to 
avenge, and the Great Powers had produced no law 
as a remedy, except the law of force; by force these 
peasants, in their turn, meant to obtain " a kind of 
wild justice." 

For them, the plains of Kossovo were sacred; there 
had been made the last heroic stand against a cruel 
and implacable foe; there had occurred the dreadful 
rout, whose few survivors told the tale, at first in 
frightened whispers, then in songs — long, wailing 
songs, like dirges. Songs are the chronicles of 
Slavonic races, they pass into the nation's ritual and 
permeate its life. Succeeding generations sang these 
songs of Kossovo, and so the legend grew, and spread 
to all the Balkan lands; each humble home, even in 
far Eumania, had heard of Lazar, a Tsar who led his 
people and gave his life up for them on a battlefield 
known as " the Field of Blackbirds." When princes 



24 OLD EUBOPE'S SUICIDE 

perish thus, servility conspires with pity to make them: 
martyrs. The dead Tsar led his people still, and far 
more potently in death than life; his legendary form, 
looming gigantic through the mists of time, beckoned 
them, irresistibly, to blood-soaked fields, where, once 
again, the Turks and Serbs would meet in mortal 
strife. 

The Eirst Servian Army, under the command of the 
Crown Prince Alexander, had crossed the old Serbo- 
Turkish frontier near Vranje. After two exhausting 
marches in enemy territory, the leading units, 
emerging from the mountains, saw in front of them an 
undulating plain; in the distance some minarets, 
surmounting a collection of whitewashed houses, stood 
out against the sky. The Serbs were in sight of 
Kumanovo, a town situated 15 miles north-east of 
Uskub, on the western fringe of a vast stretch of 
pasture land bearing the local name of " Ovce Polje " 
or " Sheepfield." Eunning across the plain, from 
east to west, a line of trenches was clearly visible; 
on the railway track from Salonica many trams were 
standing, from which men descended and, after 
forming into groups, moved outwards to the trenches. 
It required no special military acumen to appreciate 
the fact that the Turks intended to make a stand at 
Kumanovo. The battlefield was flanked on the west 
by a railway and on the east by a small river, an 
affluent of the Vardar; to the north lay mountains, 
to the south the plain extended as far as tEe eye could 
reach. 

Night was falling, in a hurricane of wind and rain, 
when the Servian advanced guards reached the 
northern limit of the plain and began to place their 
outposts. During the day there had been skirmishes 
with hostile patrols; everyone was soaked to the skin, 
and supplies were a march behind. I must have seen 
several hundred infantry soldiers take up their 



THE BATTLE OF KUMANOVO 25 

appointed positions in a cluster of stony kopjes, which 
marked the extreme left of the Servian outpost line, 
and not a murmur of complaint or grumbling reached 
my ears. Sometimes men passed who muttered to 
themselves. I asked a Servian staff; officer what they 
were saying; he replied simply, "Their prayers." 
And on this note began their vigil. 

All through the night the rain-sodden, wearied 
troops were arriving at their bivouacs. The front 
token up was unduly extended and, notably on the 
extreme left, there were many gaps. The dawn 
revealed a scene of desolation and considerable dis- 
order. Soon after sunrise the Turks attacked. 

Throughout the first day of battle the Turks 
pursued offensive tactics, attempting repeatedly _ to 
turn the Servian left. More than once the situation 
on this flank became critical. Reinforcements arrived 
in driblets and in an exhausted condition; they were 
at once absorbed in the fighting line, without regard 
for any other consideration except the saving of a 
local situation. Of higher leading there was little, it 
was just a soldiers' battle — hard, brutal fighting, 
stubborn valour in the front line, chaotic confusion 
behind. 

Late in the evening I saw a small party of horsemen 
moving rapidly from battalion to battalion, imme- 
diately behind the front line. Riding by himself^ a 
little in advance of the others, was a young man with 
a thin, sallow face, wearing pince nez. He stopped 
frequently and spoke with the officers and men. 
When he had passed on, they followed him with their 
eyes and seemed to move more briskly about their 
business. To these rough men from all parts of 
Servia this brief visit had a special interest ; the young 
man who rode alone and in front was the Crown Prince 
Alexander, and most of them were seeing him for the 
first time. 



26 OLD EUKOPE'S SUICIDE 

In more senses than one the Crown Prince was 
alone that day. His exalted rank had conferred on 
him the command of an army; his extreme youth 
made it hard for him to impose his will on a staff of 
military experts. At the headquarters of the First 
Servian Army there was the usual percentage of senior 
officers who,ie peace training had taken from them 
any human or imaginative qualities they may ever 
have possessed; who regarded war as a science, not 
a drama; men without elasticity of mind, eternally 
seeking an analogy between their own situation, at 
any given moment, and some vaguely similar situation 
in the career of their favourite strategist (generally 
von Moltke). Since in war at least, analogies are 
never perfect, such men lack quick decision and, 
almost invariably, they take the line of least resist- 
ance. 

During the afternoon precedingi the evening visit of 
the Crown Prince to his troops, several influential and 
elderly officers had been advising retreat; they had 
studied the map carefully, and in their opinion no 
other course was left to the Commander of the First 
Army. All the text books confirmed this view, and 
in these books were embodied the great principles of 
strategy. They pointed out to Prince Alexander that 
he owed it to himself and his country to retire, as 
soon as possible, to a new position and fight again 
another day. They were absolutely sincere and were 
convinced that, since the Servian left was in process 
of being turned, all the military experts would approve 
of what might, euphemistically, be termed " a 
strategic retirement. ' ' 

Many great military reputations have been made 
by the skilful conduct of a retreat and, according to 
their lights, the advocates of such tactics on this 
occasion were not far wrong in their reasoning. Only 
outsiders judge by results; military experts live in a 



THE BATTLE OF KUMANOVO 27 

charmed and exclusive international circle, in which 
method is everything. 

The Crown Prince had a great deal at stake. This 
battle marked a turning point in his life, and with 
him lay the final decision. He never hesitated. 
" Stand fast and counter-attack all along the line at 
the earliest possible moment ' ' was the order issued, 
and then this descendant of a warrior swineherd 
mounted his horse and went to see his soldiers, Bad 
strategy, perhaps, but understandable to the men who 
were bearing the brunt of the battle on the " Sheep- 
field " of Northern Macedonia. 

At General Headquarters Colonel G. — - P. 

shared and interpreted the Crown Prince's views. He 
knew the almost superhuman powers of endurance of 
the Servian peasants, and put his faith in them. King 
Peter upheld his son's decision ; reinforcements and 
ammunition were sent to the 1st Army, on whose 
prowess depended the future fate of Servia. 

The second day of battle dawned fair, from early 
morning onwards the Turkish assaults were launched 
in rapid succession, and without regard for loss of life. 
It was evident that the Turks were making their great 
effort in this theatre of operations. By skilful 
manipulation of the Press the Bulgars had given the 
impression that every theatre, except their own in 
Thrace, was secondary; they argued that the Turks 
w r ould be so terrified by the Bulgarian threat to Con- 
stantinople that all available forces would be 
concentrated for the protection of the Turkish capital, 
and that a purely defensive attitude would be main- 
tained in Macedonia, The facts were all against these 
suppositions. The only theatre in which the Turks 
were acting offensively was Macedonia; in Thrace, 
after being completely surprised by the Bulgarian 
advance, they were in full retreat; in Northern 
Macedonia a plan, dictated by the Central Empires, 



28 OLD EUKOPE'S SUICIDE 

was being put into execution, and the destruction of 
the 1st Servian Army was its objective. 

From prisoners' statements the Turks appeared to 
be certain of success, a large force of cavalry under Ali 
Mechmet Pasha was being held in reserve south of 
Kumanovo ready to take up the pursuit. 

On the morning of the third day the Servian front 
was still unbroken. During the preceding nighf rein- 
forcements had arrived from the general reserve, the 
gaps in the front line had been filled up, and the heavy 
artillery moved into position. The Turkish offensive 
persisted throughout the day, but late in the afternoon 
the Serbs made several successful local counter- 
attacks. After dark an unusually large number of 
priests visited the front line, the men crowded round 
them eagerly, and listened to their words. 

At daybreak, on the fourth day, a large force of 
Turks was seen moving towards the Servian left flank ; 
the Turkish commander was making a last bid for 
victory. Advancing in close formation the attacking 
columns suffered heavy losses from the fire of some 
batteries of howitzers. On other parts of the front an 
ominous cairn prevailed. Servian soldiers were 
swarming in the ragged trenches which had been 
thrown up during the course of the battle. Priests in 
their flowing black robes were everywhere. 

Suddenly, from the centre of the Servian line, a 
salvo of guns gave a signal ! It was the signal for the 
counter-attack. 

Surely, never since Eriedland had such a sight been 
seen. 

As though by magic the space between the Turkish 
trenches and the Servian front was seamed by lines of 
infantry dashing recklessly forward with bayonets 
fixed. Their onrush was irrestible, the Turkish front 
was not pierced — it was swept away. 



THE BATTLE OF KUMANOVO 29 

Within one hour of that amazing charge the battle 
of Kumanovo was lost and won. The Turkish 
General's last hope must have disappeared when a 
well-aimed refale from a group of Servian howitzers 
threw the massed squadrons of Ali Mechmet Pasha 
into hopeless confusion. Hundreds of riderless horses 
scoured the plain, and through them, ever pressing 
forward, surged the grey lines of Servia's indomitable 
infantry. The Turks were not merely driven back, 
they were routed, a rabble of unarmed men fled across 
the plain to Uskub and spread panic in the town; no 
attempt was made to man the forts, a general sauve 
qui pent took place; a well-equipped and numerous 
army melted away in headlong flight. 

By noon Uskub had ceased to be a Turkish town, its 
name was, once more, Skoplje. 

During the afternoon I came across some regiments 
which had fought en the extreme right, forming up 
about five miles north of the town. The men grinned 
with pride and satisfaction as they showed the blood- 
stains en their bayonets; they had come far for this, 
but knew no fatigue. Though so fierce in battle and 
filled with blood-lust, they were curiously gentle in 
their ways with the wounded of both sides and their 
prisoners ; one felt that one was with a lot of big, strong 
children who would bear almost anything up to a certain 
point, but that beyond that point it was most inad- 
visable to go. 

All sorts of wild stories were being circulated. It 
was said that a man, dressed in white and riding a 
white horse, had led the charge — many had seen the 
apparition, and had recognised Czar Lazar. 

A strange meeting took place that evening. The 
Consuls of the Great Powers in Uskub had remained 
in the panic-stricken town. When the last vestige of 
Turkish authority had left, they sallied forth in 



30 OLD EUBOPE'S SUICIDE 

carriages to meet the conquering host, bringing with 
them the keys of the town. On reaching the Servian 
outpost line they were forced to alight, and, after being 
blindfolded, to proceed on foot to the headquarters of 
the Crown Prince, a distance of 1^ miles. The scene 
was not without a certain irony. On the one hand, 
a young Balkan Prince, elated with victory, surrounded 
by his Staff ; on the other, the representatives of Great 
Britain, France, Bussia and Italy blindfolded, muddy 
and dishevelled by a long tramp in goloshes through 
black, sticky mud. Fine feathers make fine birds, 
national prestige has, after all, something to do with 
gold lace. 

The conqueror received these unexpected envoys 
graciously and accepted the keys, but he slept that 
night among his soldiers on the ground that they had 
won. 

Few triumphs have found a more appropriate setting. 
To the south the plain terminated in an arc of hills 
already dimmed by gathering twilight; spanning the 
arc the Biver Vardar shone like a band of silver; 
between the river and the hills lay Skoplje, the 
minarets of its numerous mosques served as reminders 
of the conquered Turk; commanding both the valley 
and the town a fortress stood, its old grey walls had 
sheltered Dushan. the greatest of all the Servian Tsars. 
These were the fruits of victory — and the tokens of 
revenge. 

I rode back to our bivouac with the Bussian Military 
Attache, and quoted to him the words of Goethe after 
Yalmy; we were indeed entering on a new world in 
the Balkans. My companion put his thoughts into far 
more concrete form : * C 'est la liquidation de 
l'Autriche " was his comment on the situation. The 
wish was father to the thought, a frequent source of 

* " It is the liquidation of Austria." 



THE BATTLE OF KUMANOVO 31 

error in Eussian calculations; Servia's victory was, 
undoubtedly, a discomfiture for the Ball Platz,* but trie 
final liquidation of Austria -Hungary was not yet 
accomplished. That consummation was reserved for 
a later date, and for a more universal tragedy. 

Our road led across the battlefield. On every side 
were traces of the struggle, corpses of men, dead and 
dying horses. Near the railway we found a Turkish 
gun team, of which five of the horses had been killed 
or wounded by a shell, the sixth horse, a big solemn- 
looking grey, was standing uninjured by his fallen 
comrades, an image of dumb distress. A Servian 
soldier, charged with the collection of loose horses, 
appeared upon ihe scene, and, after putting the 
wounded animals out of their pain, turned to 
the grey, which had been standing quietly watch- 
ing the man at work. Obviously, the next step 
was departure, but here a difficulty arose. The 
solitary survivor of the gun team was loth to 
leave, and the look in his honest, wistful eyes was 
infinitely pathetic. A colloquoy ensued between the 
representatives of the Eussian Empire and the Servian 
peasant. Both were Slavs, and, in consequence, 
horse lovers ; both agreed that this horse deserved and 
desired death; there and then an act of extravagance, 
almost impossible in any other army, was perpetrated, 
and the gun team was reunited in some equine Nirvana 
known only to Slavs and Arabs. " Another victim of 
the war/' I remarked to my companion, as we con- 
tinued on our road. He evidently considered this 
observation as typical of my? British lack of imagination, 
and proceeded to recite a poem describing the fall of 
snowflakes. Eussians can witness human suffering 
with indifference, but are curiously sentimental in 
regard to nature, animals and flowers; nearly all Slavs 

J Austro-Hungarian Foreign Office in Vienna. 



32 OLD EUBOPE'S SUICIDE 

possess a dangerous charm, the charm of men with 
generous impulses uncontrolled by guiding principles; 
their speech is splendid and inspiring, their actions 
uncertain, since they are ever at the mercy of lurking 
passions and events. 

Just before darkness fell a number of birds, coming 
from all directions, settled upon the battlefield, they 
were black in colour ; round Kumanovo spread another 
"Field of Blackbirds." But these were not black- 
birds in the ordinary sense; they were carrion crow 
brought by some instinct from their lonely haunts to 
batten on man's handiwork littering that death- 
strewn plain. A raucous cawing made the evening 
hideous; sometimes a cry, more harsh and guttral than 
the rest, seemed to propound a question, an answering 
clamour followed, approving, quarrelling; it might 
have been a parliament of birds, summoned for- 
tuitously, already passing laws to regulate this 
unexpected intercourse. Gloating, but not yet 
satisfied, the stronger birds had made themselves law- 
givers, and meant to impose respect for property upon 
their weaker brethren. 

That night the Austrian Military Attache* left 
Servian Headquarters for Vienna. His Bussian col- 
league explained his sudden departure on the ground 
that, according to the Austro-Hungarian programme, 
the Turks ought to have won. It may have been 
unwise for a small Balkan State to cross the wishes 
of so great a Power; but neither doubts nor fears 
assailed the Serbs that night; they had gained at 
ICumanovo the first pitched battle of the war, and it 
had been a famous victory. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Macedonia — 1912 . 

Macedonia is a tangle of mountains, whose higher 
levels are often bare and rocky ; the intervening valleys 
are fertile, and, in some cases, sufficiently extensive to 
be described as plains. These plains are the granaries 
of Macedonia, and contain the larger towns like Skoplje 
and Monastir, their population consists of peasants 
and farmers representing all the Balkan races, mingled 
with these, and living by their toil, are traders of 
almost every nationality. The scenery is wild and 
picturesque by turns, good roads are few and far 
between, they link the plains, which lie like oases in 
a wilderness of mountains, spaces of white, brown, 
green or yellow, according to the season. 

The victory of the Serbs at Kumanovo had been 
decisive, it had settled the fate of Northern Macedonia. 
Similar success had attended the operations in 
Northern Albania, where the Turks had abandoned 
their positions and were falling back on Scutari, pur- 
sued by the 3rd Servian Army advancing westward to 
the Adriatic. After a short delay at Skoplje, devoted 
to the reorganisation of the 1st and 2nd Armies, the 
Serbs continued their offensive towards Southern 
Macedonia ; the bulk of their available forces, under 
the command of the Crown Prince, moved south in 
the direction of Monastir, while a detachment of all 
arms descended the Vardar Valley, its objective being 
Salonika. 

33 

c 



34 OLD EUKOPE'S SUICIDE 

These dispositions were dictated by sound strategy, 
which, for the moment, and quite justifiably, overrode 
all political considerations. The enemy's Field Army 
in Macedonia had to be found and beaten; the 
remnants of that army were rallying for the defence 
of a second Plevna, covering the richest inland town 
in Macedonia, situated west of the Vardar Valley, and 
joined with Salonika by a railway. At this period, 
so far as I could judge, the Serbs were acting as loyal 
allies. The fact that no Bulgars were participating 
in the operations could be explained on administrative 
grounds. 

I decided to remain with the Crown Prince's recon- 
stituted army, and arrived at his headquarters in the 
middle of November; they were established at Prilip, 
a prosperous little town situated at the northern 
extremity of the plain of Monastir. Winter had 
already set in, rain was falling on the plain, and snow 
lay on the hills. 

A lodging had been provided for me in a peasant's 
house, whose spotless cleanliness was most reassuring. 
In this small dwelling were crowded the representa- 
tives of Great Britain, France, Eussia and Italy, with 
a Servian officer as guide and interpreter, the owner 
of the house was absent with the armies, his wife both 
cooked and served our meals. I asked the Servian 
officer of what race she was. He replied, " Oh, she 
is a Bulgar, there are a few Bulgarian farmers in this 
district. ' ' 

At Servian Headquarters the situation was dis- 
cussed with a frankness which had been lacking while 
the Austro-Hungarian Military Attache was present. 
Everyone agreed that the task before the Servian 
Army was one of unusual difficulty. The Turkish 
forces were still numerous, they disposed of excellent 
communications with Salonika, and the position they 
occupied was of great natural strength. The Serbs, 



MACEDONIA, 1912 35 

on the other hand, were, far from their base, the roads 
connecting Prilip with the railway were almost 
impassable for heavy wheeled vehicles, and the train 
service with Servia was . irregular and inefficient. 
Fortunately, the inhabitants of Prilip had come to the 
rescue by supplying the troops with 30,000 loaves of 
bread daily. 

The spirit of the Servian soldiers was still excellent, 
they were flushed with victory and confident of 
success; but they had slaked their passion for revenge, 
their thoughts were with their families and homes, to 
which they expected to return so soon as this next and 
last battle should have been fought and won. 

A change had taken place in the mood of the Eussian 
Military Attache; he seemed pre-occupied, and had 
made himself unpopular at Servian Headquarters by 
urging the inclusion of Bulgarian forces for the attack 
on Monastir. This suggestion had first been made 
at Skoplje, and had met with a flat refusal; it was 
renewed at Prilip when the inhabitants agreed to 
supply the troops with bread. Incensed by a second 
refusal, the Eussian so far forgot his diplomatic self as 
to state in public that such conduct on the part of the 
Serbs was idiotic, in view of the fact that the great 
majority of the population of the town and district 
were Bulgars. I asked him to which town he 
referred, " Monastir or Prilip," he replied, " both." 
A sidelight was now being cast on the contents of the 
" Secret Treaty," already an inkling could be gained 
of the troubles that were to come. 

Two roads lead south from Prilip. One traverses 
the plain throughout its length, the other skirts its 
eastern boundary, following the left bank of the Cerna, 
a tributary of the Vardar. The Serbs advanced by 
both these roads, the main body debouched upon the 
plain, while a detachment took the river route, a 
metalled road built on swampy ground between the 



36 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

Cerna and a range of lofty mountains. Snow had fallen 
during the night preceding this advance, and when 
day broke billows of mist obscured the Cerna's course 
and blotted out the hills beyond. At the southern 
limit of the plain a ridge, covered with new-fallen 
snow, screened from our view the town of Monastir; 
this ridge was the Turkish position, which faced almost 
due north with its right flank resting on the Cerna; 
the river had overflowed its banks and caused a wide- 
spread inundation. The left flank terminated in a 
cluster of foothills between the northern end of Lake 
Prespa and Monastir; the nature of the country and 
the absence of roads protected this flank from a 
turning movement. For two days the Serbs wasted 
their energies in frontal attacks against this carefully 
prepared position; each assault broke like a wave on 
the barbed-wire entanglements which covered the 
Turkish trenches. For the first time the Servian 
infantry had been checked, and a feeling akin to 
dismay was spreading in their ranks; it seemed 
impossible to scale that ridge, behind which nestled 
Monastir, invisible and unattainable. Success now 
depended on the action of the detachment on the Cerna 
road. Here the Turks had committed a serious error, 
the extensive inundations on their right flank had led 
them to believe that it was inaccessible, and they 
allowed the Serbs to advance, practically unopposed, 
along the river as far as Novak, a village on the left 
bank, situated due east of Monastir, and connected 
with it by a built-up chauss^e. The error consisted 
in under-estimating the qualities of the peasants and 
fishermen of Servia, men inured from their youth to 
hardships and exposure, to whom few natural obstacles 
are insurmountable. Another factor supervened — 
the factor of morale. Over their comrades on the 
plain the troops of Novak had one great advantage — 
they could see the town lying behind the snow-clad 
ridge. 



MACEDONIA, 1912 37 

War is a pilgrimage for simple soldiers, long days of 
marching, longer nights of vigil ; they know not where 
they go, nor why — until the day of battle ; if then they 
see the goal they fight with stronger purpose, and 
knowledge born of vision casts out their doubts and 
fears. So it was with the Serbs that day at Novak; 
they looked across a waste of water and saw before 
them Monastir — the Mecca of their pilgrimage; the 
sight inspired these humble pilgrims, they set their 
faces to the west, entered the icy flood, crossed it 
unflinchingly, and by this bold manoeuvre snatched 
victory from defeat. 

By the evening of the third day of battle the right 
flank of the Turkish position had been turned, the 
Turks had abandoned their positions north of Monastir, 
and had effected their retreat into the mountains of 
Albania. Greek cavalry arrived at Fiorina (a town 
on the Monastir- Salonika railway) during the course 
of the battle, but took no part in the fighting. A 
Bulgarian column, descending the Struma Valley, had 
already reached the Eupel Pass, where the mountains 
merge into the coastal plain. For all practical pur- 
poses the Balkan Allies were masters of Macedonia; 
Greek, Bulgarian and Servian forces were converging 
on Salonika, whose fall was imminent. 

On November 20, two days after the capture of 
Monastir, the 3rd Servian Army, in co-operation with 
the Montenegrins, captured Alessic, and thus gained 
access to the Adriatic seaboard. So far as Servia 
was concerned little remained to be done, old Servia 
had been reconquered, an outlet to the sea had been 
acquired. Servia, the State, had more than gained her 
object; Servia, the Ally, the Member of the Balkan 
League, was at the parting of the ways. Under the 
terms of the Secret Treaty Monastir passed into 
Bulgaria's sphere of influence. This Macedonian town, 
if held as one of the fruits of Servia 's victory, was 



38 OLD EUBOPE'S SUICIDE 

bound to become an apple of discord. Every thinking 
man in Servia knew it, but knowledge is not always 
power. 

The Prime Minister of Servia in 1912 was M. 
Pasitch, already a veteran among Balkan statesmen, 
and a man of patriarchal mien. The enemies of M. 
Pasitch said that his long, white beard had made his 
reputation as a statesman; his friends deplored an 
accent which was not purely Servian, he had been 
born at Pirot, on the Bulgarian frontier, where 
languages, races and politics were apt to get somewhat 
mixed. To foreigners M. Pasitch was a man of 
mystery, who spoke French badly, German rather 
better, and dealt in platitudes. Yet, beyond doubt, 
he was one of Servia 's great old men, with or without 
his beard. King Peter, weighed down by age and 
suffering, had left to him the cares of State, and he 
had borne the heat and burden of the day unruffled by 
abuse or calumny. At times he was pathetic as, for 
example, when he said that the worst enemies of his 
country and himself were those he tried to rule. These 
words conveyed a bitter truth. M. Pasitch was a 
Servian institution, a Nestor in the Council, but, like 
most Balkan politicians, only retained office by sub- 
mission to forces independent of the Government. 
The foreign policy of Servia was dictated by M. 
Hartwig, the Eussian Minister, and a diplomat of con- 
spicuous ability ; within certain limits this arrangement 
worked well, however galling it may have been to 
citizens of a sovereign State. Servia 's internal affairs 
were at the mercy of factions and secret societies; of 
these the most influential was a society known as the 
" Black Hand," which included among its members 
some of the ablest men in the country, whose patriotism 
was beyond dispute, but who had all the vices of their 
virtues. The very qualities which had made them 
fight so well fostered a spirit of unreasonableness; 



MACEDONIA, 1912 39 

they mistook moderation for lack of zeal and prudence 
for timidity, in their eyes it was statesmanship to give 
free rein to the unbridled appetites of ignorant, short- 
sighted men intoxicated by success. 

In an evil hour for Servia a combination of these 
outside forces directed Servian policy in regard to 
Monastir. The attitude of the Serbs was at least 
comprehensible, they could urge their sacrifices and 
the rights of conquest, that of M. Hartwig was inex- 
plicable. This man knew the contents of the Secret 
Treaty, on which was based the Balkan League, and 
by which Servia renounced all claims to Monastir. He 
could not have ignored Bulgarian sentiment in 
Macedonia, nor the statistics of the population ; yet he 
— a chief creator of the Balkan Bloc, an ardent 
Slav, a clever, gifted man, steeped in the politics of 
Central Europe — connived at denunciation of the 
Secret Treaty within a few months of its signature. 

Interference by the Great Powers in Balkan affairs 
has always been disastrous, because it has been selfish : 
M. Hartwig may have considered the Serbs as little 
brothers, but he used them as an advanced guard of 
Pan- Slavism without regard for their real interests of 
preparedness for the task. Like the Bussian Military 
Attache", he thought that the victories of Kumanovo 
and Monastir had brought about " la liquidation de 
rAutriche," and that in future Bussia alone would 
control the Balkan situation. He was wrong, and 
bis and Servia's mistaken policy gave Austria-Hungary 
her opportunity. 

The reaction of policy in strategy soon became mani- 
fest. In spite of the fact that a Turkish Army, led 
by Djavid Pasha (the best of Turkey's generals), was 
still in being, all active operations were suspended, 
and the Servian forces were distributed throughout the 
conquered territory and became an army of occupation. 
Monastir, renamed Bitolja, was held by a garrison con- 



40 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

sisting exclusively of Serbs, the civil administration 
was taken over by Servian officials. 

Monastir had become a part of Servia, and a very 
unhappy part at that ; the reasons were not far to seek 
— the population was not Servian, 78* per cent, of the 
inhabitants of the vilayet were Bulgars, and of the 
rest only a small proportion were Serbs. Euthless 
repression of every institution or business which did 
not profess a Servian origin only served to embitter 
popular feeling, and reveal the real facts of the situa- 
tion. Ignorance of the Servian language was counted 
as a crime; publicans and other comparatively 
innocuous traders were flogged for infringing decrees, 
published in Servian, which they could not 
understand. Twelve lashes applied by an athletic 
gendarme are, no doubt, a powerful incentive to 
learning foreign languages, but many residents so mis- 
trusted their linguistic talents that, rather than face a 
second lesson, they left their homes, preferring the lot 
of refugees to tyranny and persecution. Monastir was 
a town in torment, lamentations resounded in the Con- 
sulates of all the Great Powers, the publicans were 
not alone in regretting the departure of the backward 
but tolerant Turk. 

In the army of occupation, although discipline was 
strictly maintained, a revulsion of feeling had taken 
place. The poor in every Balkan State were suffering, 
as they always do, on them had fallen the burden of the 
war, shorn of its bloody splendour. The misery in 
Macedonia sickened the Servian peasants, they feared 
for their own homes, and deserted in large numbers. 
Armies are not machines, they are dynamic bodies 
whose health depends on action, kept stationary amid 
a strife of tongues they melt away. 

* Turkish statistics : There is good reason to believe that these 
figures were approximately correct; it is most improbable, in any case, 
that the Turks would have exaggerated the number of Bulgars in this 
virayet. 



MACEDONIA, 1912 41 

The Greeks bad won the race for Salonika without 
much bloodshed, it was said that the Turkish military 
governor had sold the town for 300,000 francs. The 
Bulgars arrived a few hours after the triumphal entry 
of the Greek troops. They were received coldly, like 
unwelcome visitors. The Serbs were greeted more 
cordially, but as guests rather than Allies. 

At all iEgean ports the sea breezes compete unsuc- 
cessfully with unsavoury odours, resulting from 
insanitary conditions, dried fish and garlic; Salonika 
was no exception to the rule, but at the time of my 
arrival the moral atmosphere was even more unwhole- 
some. Greeks, Serbs and Bulgars jostled each other 
in the narrow streets, proclaiming by their presence 
the downfall of Turkish rule in Macedonia. Yet, 
though success was sweet, its aftermath had turned to 
bitterness. Something had been smashed, something 
they had all feared and hated ; and now they were face 
to face with one another, the broken pieces in their 
hands, themselves a prey to envy, greed, and, worst 
of all, uncertainty. The Balkan Allies were writhing 
in the net of an alliance concluded secretly, its clauses 
were known only to a chosen few, who dared not tell 
the truth. Each nation had its version of the Treaty, 
twisting the facts to suit its special interests. Brawls 
occurred daily in the streets between the Allied 
soldiers, their leaders wrangled in hotels. Many 
wealthy Turks had remained, they wore the look of men 
who, if not over-honest, still hoped, when the thieves 
fell out, to come into their own again. 

Greece claimed Salonika on the ground of prior 
occupation; Bulgaria demanded that the port and its 
hinterland should be under the same administration, 
or, in other words, her own; Servia had no direct 
interest in Salonika, but clung doggedly to Monastir, 
in spite of the Treaty. 



42 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

The Greek and Bulgarian Governments then in 
power were anxious to reach a settlement, but neither 
Government dared abate its claims; public opinion in 
both Greece and Bulgaria was supposed to be against 
concessions, because some organs of the Press had said 
it was so. A curious illusion this, though prevalent in 
every country. In the Balkans many important 
papers were subsidised with foreign money, yet still 
were believed to voice the views of peasants who could 
neither read nor write. 

Colonel G. P. , while discussing the possi- 
bility of obtaining ammunition from the Western 
Powers through Salonika, had suggested that the port 
should be internationalised. This was, of course, the 
only practical solution of the problem ; but coming from 
a Serb it would have had more weight if it had been 
accompanied by a promise to surrender Monastir. 
Unfortunately, no such surrender, either immediate or 
prospective, was within the sphere of practical politics. 
M. Gueshoff, the Bulgarian Prime Minister, w^nt so 
far as to offer to leave the town and a part of Macedonia 
to the Serbs until Servian aspirations in other 
directions should have been gratified. An agreement 
to this effect was reached during a private meeting 
with M. Pasitch, but it came to naught ; neither Prime 
Minister could control the sinister forces which 
worked like a poisonous leaven in their countries, and 
were rapidly wrecking the Balkan " Bloc." 

By the middle of December, 1912, it had become 
evident that no peaceful settlement of the Macedonian 
question was possible if the Balkan States were left to 
tiheir own devices. Collective intervention by the 
Great Powers was precluded by the attitude of at least 
three among them who were deliberately exploiting the 
rivalry of the Balkan Allies, and hoped to fish in 
troubled waters. 



MACEDONIA, 1912 43 

In the Bay of Salonika a British warship lay at 
anchor, a symbol of the Armada whose tentacles were 
on every sea, but a symbol and nothing more. To the 
men on shore, some of whom were looking at the sea 
for the first time, this ship was an object of respect 
and curiosity; they had heard of Great Britain's 
habitual gesture when Abdul Hamid became 
obstreperous, and they may have wondered whether 
Salonika was not regarded in the same light as Besika* 
Bay; it may even have occurred to some of them 
that perhaps the British Government had a policy in 
the Mgeaii, where a new situation had arisen, requiring 
prompt attention from the Mistress of the Seas. 

It was then, as it is now, my firm conviction that 
if, at this critical period, the British and French 
Governments had sent a Note insisting on Salonika 
being made an international port, and that if the Note 
had been supported by the dispatch to Salonika of a 
squadron of warships, Greece and Bulgaria would have 
complied. The rulers of the Balkan States would 
have welcomed such a method of escape from the 
dilemma in which they found themselves; they knew, 
none better, how devoid of a comprehensive 
Macedonian policy they were, how the swift advance 
of the armies had outstripped their calculations, and 
what would be the consequences if they failed to reach 
agreement. The Note would have indicated the course 
to pursue; the display of force would have justified 
compliance in the eyes of their own peoples. 
Objections to this course of action might have been 
raised by the Central Powers, but they could hardly 
have made it a casus belli, the pretext would have 
been too flimsy; further, while the Balkan Bloc 
was still in being a prudent policy was imposed. On 

* A bay in the Eastern Mediterranean Coast to which a British 
squadron was sent whenever it was necessary to put pressure on the 
Turks. 



44 OLD EUKOPE'S SUICIDE 

the other hand, the Eussian Government, partly owing 
to the advocacy of M Hartwig, and partly from anxiety 
in regard to the Bulgarian advance towards Constanti- 
nople, had become the partisan of Servia, and was not 
directly interested in Salonika. 

No such step was taken, and a great opportunity was 
lost. The action of each of the Great Powers was 
characteristic — the British Government suggested a 
conference of Balkan representatives in London; 
French agents, working in the interest of Schneider, 
secured orders from the Servian Government for guns 
and ammunition; Italy sent Servia a warning about 
the Adriatic ; Austria- Hungary began a partial mobili- 
sation. If further proof had been needed, this 
mobilisation should have convinced the most purblind 
observers of Austria-Hungary's underlying motives; 
the veriest tyro in geography must have known that 
Salonika was more accessible to the fleets than to the 
armies of the Great Powers; a display of force in 
Bosnia and Herzegovina could not effect appeasement 
at Salonika, it could only terrorise the Montenegrins 
and the Serbs, and at the same time encourage the 
Turks still left in Europe, to prolong their resistance. 
Ncr did Austro-Hungarian policy overlook the 
possibilities presented by Bulgaria ; the Bulgars, so far, 
had gained little by the war, the Greeks were at 
Salonika, and the Serbs at Monastir; they, the 
Bulgars, had not yet captured Adrianople, and their 
hearts were rilled with bitterness and resentment. 
After all, they had some cause to grumble, and some 
excuse for listening to the tempter. 

The belligerent States accepted the invitation to 
confer in London. "While the delegates conferred 
wearied soldiers, immobilised by frost and snow, 
burrowed in holes like hibernating animals. 

I returned to Belgrade for Christmas, 1912. The 
town was full to overflowing, and, as usual, foreigners, 



MACEDONIA, 1912 45 

posing as Balkan experts, did all the talking. The 
Serbs themselves were feeling the pinch of war, hunger 
and cold had brought typhus in their train; the angel 
of death was claiming many victims still. 

Walking back from dinner with a journalist who 
enjoyed a European reputation, I got what my com- 
panion called " a peep behind the scenes." It was a 
most unedifying spectacle, and as remote from reality 
as the moon, which, sailing high in heaven, lit up that 
winter night. 

In all that concerned the Balkans the Great Powers 
were in truth les grandes Impuissances* Blinded by 
ignorance, greed and prejudice, they were laying the 
foundations of a pyramid, whose blocks would 
be errors piled on errors through seven succeeding 
years. The Great Powers were the master-builders, 
and the Balkan States their pupils. Apt pupils these, 
ready to learn and accustomed to obey. The lessons 
given and received were base, unworthy and a nega- 
tion of all moral sense. 

To anyone who knew and faced the facts the situa- 
tion had the elements of a Greek tragedy. The Balkan 
experts had played the part of a Bacchanalian chorus 
and created a suitable atmosphere. The first act was 
completed, its stage a little known, romantic land, to 
many a land of promise. One wondered whether the 
east was yet complete, and what new players might be 
added. Ruthlessly, logically and inevitably the 
climax would be reached. But where and how? No 
one could then foresee. 

* " The Great Powerless." 



CHAPTER V. 
Albania— .1912-1913. 

After the victory at Kumanovo, as already mentioned, 
the 3rd Servian Army marched westwards into 
Albania. The northern part of this Turkish province 
had a special value in Servian eyes. It included the 
so-called Adriatic ports — Durazzo and San Giovanni 
di Medua. 

Colonel G P had given me some idea of the 

hatred felt by his countrymen for Albanians generally. 
The misgivings aroused at Belgrade by bis reference to 
this subject were more than confirmed by the conduct 
of the Albanian campaign. No detailed narrative of 
these operations has been obtained, but the frag- 
mentary reports received, both from neutrals and 
belligerents, left no doubt as to the atrocities which 
aecompanied and stained indelibly the heroism and. 
endurance of the Servian soldiers. Whole villages, 
were wiped out, old men, women and children were 
either slaughtered in their homes or driven forth to 
die of cold and famine, the countryside was wasted, an 
orgy of wanton destruction was permitted, if not 
encouraged, by the Servian Staff. As the army 
penetrated more deeply into the mountains, fresh 
horrors were added; winter set in, the passes became 
blocked with ice and snow, men and animals fell from, 
slippery tracks into abysses, disease and insanity were 
rife, a line of corpses marked the passage of the army. 
Numbers dwindled rapidly; only the strongest sur- 
vived; stragglers were left to die in awful solitudes. 
The Albanian peasants, aided by the Turks, defended 
their mountains step by step ; bands of them hovered 

47 



48 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

round the line of march, seeking a chance for grim 
reprisals. Quarter was neither asked nor given ; men 
fought like barbarians with a veneer of science, which 
made their actions doubly hideous. Episodes described 
by competent and impartial observers leave an im- 
pression as painful as it is confusing; nothing more 
terrible has taken place in any part of the world, or 
in the whole history of war. 

Servian activities in Albania provoked a protest on 
the part of two of the Great Powers, but not on 
humanitarian grounds. From both Vienna and Rome 
there came a note of warning: " Ne touchez pas* 
l'Adriatique " was the purport of the message. The 
attitude of the Austro-Hungarian and Italian Govern- 
ments was frankly interested ; it was that of a big dog 
who sees a terrier gnawing a bone within tempting 
reach of it's (the big dog's) kennel. This prohibition 
was not to be lightly disregarded, but the Government 
at Belgrade showed unexpected firmness. Strong in 
their faith in Russia and in M. Hartwig, the Serbs 
continued to advance. After a month of ceaseless 
struggle against Turks, Albanians, the elements and 
nature, this vanguard of Pan-Slavism in the Balkans 
came within sight of the forbidden coast, between 
Alessio and Durazzo. The soldiers raised a shout of 
exultation. Behind them lay a barrier of mountains, 
impassable in winter; before them was the sea, to 
reach whose shores they had endured and risked so 
much. Some troopers galloped quickly to the beach 
and sourred their famished horses into the sparkling 
water, and when they found it was not fit to drink 
they murmured helplessly. The men of Servia 
proper, unlike their kinsmen of Dalmatia, had not the 
habit of the sea ; for them it still remained a mystery, 
pregnant with disillusionment both present and to 
come. 

* " Don't touch the Adriatic." 



ALBANIA, 1912-1913 49 

The Turks had withdrawn the bulk of their forces 
to Scutari and the Serbs occupied Alessio without 
encountering serious opposition. This ancient town 
is situated at the junction of the new road from the 
coast at San Giovanni di Medua with the main road 
connecting Durazzo and Scutari. It formed, in con- 
sequence, an admirable base for future operations. 
For the time being, however, the 3rd Servian Army 
was incapable of further efforts; the troops were 
exhausted, supplies and ammunition were scarce, 
boots for the men and shoes for the borses were alike 
lacking, and until sea communications with Servia 
through Salonika could be established a continuance 
of the offensive was impossible. Unfortunately, the 
confusion which reigned at Salonika prevented the 
immediate despatch of supplies and reinforcements to 
San Giovanni di Medua; the army was immobilised by 
force of circumstances and degenerated into an army 
of occupation, holding a strip of territory between the 
mountains and the sea. 

The invasion of Albania had been undertaken 
prematurely and in a spirit of exaggerated optimism; 
impatience and want of foresight had rendered fruit- 
less an achievement which, however marred by atro- 
cities, was a splendid feat of arms. Servia 's position 
in Albania became more precarious with every day 
that passed in inactivity. The key of the situation 
was Scutari. While that fortress remained in Turkish 
hands, conquest was incomplete, and at any moment 
one or more of the Great Powers might intervene; 
already there were indications that the Dual Monarchy* 
was losing patience and fretting against a policy which 
kept the ring. 

Alessio is noted as the burial place of Scanderbeg, 
an Albanian chieftain and son of a Servian princess. 

* Austria-Hungary. 



50 OLD EUKOPE'S SUICIDE 

During the 15th century he had waged war against 
the Turks for over twenty years; his name was a 
household word in Servia, as that of one who had 
fought a common foe. Time had wrought many 
changes since those days. The narrow streets around 
the hero's tomb were thronged by an invading host 
of Serbs, with devastation in their track, their hands 
imbrued with Albanian peasants' blood. An evil 
genius seemed to possess the Servian leaders. The 
war, no more a war of liberation, had loosed their 
basest passions; success had made them cruel, vin- 
dictive and tyrannical, the very faults for which they 
blamed the Turks. 

As Bacon says : ' ' Prosperity is not without many 
fears and distastes; and adversity is not without 
comforts and hopes." While Servia groaned beneath 
the Turkish yoke, cycles of songs had fortified her 
faith and poetised defeat. Only a "Hymn of Hate" 
could chronicle this victory — a fierce lament, resound- 
ing through a land of desolation, echoing a people's 
cries of woe. 

Winter passed without any active protest on the 
part, of the Great Powers in regard to the presence 
of Servian troops in Northern Albania. In the early 
part of February, the Young Turks, under the leader- 
ship of Enver Pasha, broke off the peace negotiations 
in London, and hostilities recommenced in Thrace and 
Albania. Macedonia was clear of Turks and, from 
a purely Servian point of view, the only remaining 
military operation was the capture of Scutari. The 
troops on the spot were unequal to the task, and the 
Servian Government decided on the despatch of rein- 
forcements, by sea, to San Giovanni di Medua. Time 
pressed. The Serbs had learned at the London Con- 
ference that a fait accompli* was a better basis for 
bargaining with their Allies and the Great Powers than 

* " An accomplished fact." 



ALBANIA, 1912-1913 51 

the most righteous cause; they feared that, at an 
early date, a second armistice might be imposed upon 
them, and they were determined to, if possible, attend 
the next conference masters of Scutari and the 
adjacent coast. 

The organisation of the expeditionary force was 
completed rapidly and efficiently, and by the end of 
February the Servian troops were concentrated at 
Salonika. Unfortunately for the Serbs, they were 
dependent on their Greek allies for overseas transport 
and a naval escort. The intentions of the Greek 
Government may have been excellent, but their 
administrative services left much to be desired. It 
was not until March 17 that the fleet of transports 
steamed out of Salonika harbour; at least 14 days 
had been wasted in vexatious, and in some cases 
unnecessary, delays. 

The ships were overcrowded to an extent which 
would hardly have been justified if the voyage had 
been made in time of peace, when it would have lasted 
only four or five days; in time of war, and more 
especially in view of the recent activity of the Turkish 
cruiser Hamidieh, a prolongation of the voyage should 
have been allowed for and suitable arrangements 
made ; they were not, and once again the soldiers had 
to suffer for the optimism of the Headquarter Staff. 
In point of fact the Hamidieh was never within 1,000 
miles of the Adriatic, but its name inspired dread, 
and the transports dared not move without an escort 
of Greek warships. At the last moment these were 
not forthcoming, owing to the occurrence of a naval 
display at the Piraeus, on the occasion of the funeral 
of King George of Greece, who had been assassinated 
a few days earlier in the streets of Salonika. Twelve 
precious days were spent between the Mgean and the 
Gulf of Corinth. The convoy reached the Ionian Sea 
and anchored off San Giovanni di Medua after a 



52 OLD EUBOPE'S SUICIDE 

journey lasting 17 days. So long a voyage in crowded, 
insanitary transports had its inevitable result; typhus 
had broken out among the troops, many men were 
buried at sea, the horses and oxen suffered terribly; 
some had been embarked a fortnight before we left 
Salonika. Without firing a shot the Servian Expedi- 
tionary Force had lost much of its fighting value, 
mainly through the muddling of the military and 
naval staffs. War is at all times wasteful. When 
Allied States share in an enterprise, officials speak in 
many tongues, their jealousies are national as well as 
personal, the waste is augmented out of all proportion 
to the results achieved. 

As we approached our moorings at San Giovanni di 
Medua, I was standing on the bridge of the flagship 

with Colonel G P . After looking through his 

field glasses at the coastline for some minutes, he 
turned to me with the laconic remark, " Dasz ist ein 
groszes niehts."* No better description could have 
been made in words. 

Lying before us was a bay, sheltered from the north 
by a low headland, below which could be seen a sandy 
beach with two jetties; to the east of the beach was 
the mouth of the Biver Drin; from here the coastline 
ran in a southerly direction and was fringed by 
mangroves. The only human habitations in. sight 
were two houses on the headland, and in the distance, 
about six miles away, Alessio. Stranded on the beacn 
were two Greek steamers, victims of the Hamidieh. 
San Giovanni di Medua was not a port, it was ?n open 
roadstead, affording no shelter from a south-west wind. 

The reinforcements sent by sea brought the total 
number of Servian combatants in Albania up to 23,000 
of all arms, with a good proportion of artillery. At 
this stage of the war, and taking into consideration 
the jealousies which divided the Turkish commanders, 

* That is a big nothing. 



ALBANIA, 1912 1913 53 

a force of such size and composition had Scutari at 
its mercy. One determined assault would have 
brought about the fall of the fortress. For reasons 
which have never been explained, the Servian General, 
who directed also the operations of the Montenegrin 
Army, continually postponed the day for the assault. 
This procrastination was destined to have disastrous 
consequences. 

Nearly three weeks had passed since the landing 
when, one evening at dinner time, I was informed 
that the general assault would take place at dawn on 
the following day. The infantry and guns were 
already in their advanced positions, and everyone was 
confident of success. Towards the end of the meal 
a Servian Staff Officer entered with a message for 

Colonel G P , who, after reading it, leaned 

across me and addressed the General. Both men 
seemed agitated, and left the tent together. A few 
minutes later I was asked to join them. A curious 
document was put before me. It was signed by a 
British admiral, who described himself as the com- 
mander of an international squadron of warships, 
anchored at the time of writing off San Giovanni di 
Medua. There was nothing ambiguous about this 
document. It was a formal order to the Servian 
General to withdraw his forces from the neighbourhood 
of Scutari and bring them back to the coast; no dip- 
lomatic verbiage was employed and no explanations 
were given. 

The first effect of this amazing communication on 
the two Servian officers was stupefaction, which soon 
gave way to strong resentment. They, not un- 
naturally, considered such treatment as an affront to 
the sovereignty of their country and a flagrant breach 
of neutrality. They found some consolation, however, 
in the fact that a British admiral had signed. It gave 
them a sense of security, so they said. Everywhere 



54 OLD EUKOPE'S SUICIDE 

in the Balkans one found this sentiment towards the 
British. It touched the heart and flattered pride of 
race ; one tried to forget the ignorance and detachment 
of the British Government, to justify this simple trust 
and to be worthy of it. The signature was not very 
legible, but the name was already sufficiently well 
known for me to recognise it as Cecil Burney. 

No steps were taken to countermand the assault, 
which would undoubtedly have taken place had not a 
telegram arrived at midnight, from Belgrade, contain- 
ing full instructions as to the future conduct of the 
Servian forces in Albania. The withdrawal of all 
troops to the sea coast, whence they had come, was 
to be absolute and immediate; advanced posts were 
to be withdrawn under cover of darkness, to minimise 
the risk of rearguard actions with the enemy. On 
arrival at San Giovanni di Medua, preparations were 
to be made at once to re-embark the troops on specially 
provided transports, already on their way from 
Salonika. 

The Serbs marched back to the coast bursting with 
anger and despair. All their hardships and sufferings 
had been endured in vain. Coming down the valley 
towards the beach they saw before them a great array 
of warships, flying the flags of six Great Powers, and 
learned another bitter lesson. The sea was not for 
them — not yet at least. A swift reaction followed. 
The force that daunted them was force afloat, on land 
they held themselves invincible, and asked for nothing 
better than to return to Macedonia, to conquests 
nearer to their hearts and homes; to mountains and 
inland plains where water was not salt, where men 
and animals were not cooped up in stifling holds, and 
did not have their stomachs turned by the uneasy 
movement of the sea. 

They thought they had been tricked, and from this 
mood a frame of mind emerged which brooked no 



ALBANIA, 1912-1913 55 

compromise at Monastir. The " Black Hand " society 
got many new adherents from the Servian Army in 
Albania during these fateful days. Made bitter by 
helplessness and disappointment, these men believed 
that that society alone stood up for Servia's rights, 
and so they joined the ranks of the enemies of peace. 

Colonel G P looked grey and haggard; 

this termination of an enterprise of which he had been 
the principal organiser was a set-back in his career, 
but to all personal considerations he was indifferent. 
The causes of this sudden display of energy on the 
part of the Great Powers did, however, give him food 
for anxious reflection. He saw the handiwork of 
Austria-Hungary, and said bitterly: " Albania is a 
small country but it contains three races and four 
religions. There is only one way of maintaining peace 
here, and that is by dividing this country between 
Servia and Greece. At the beginning it would be hard, 
but no harder for the Albanians than when they were 
under the Turks, from whom we have liberated them. 
Austria wants an autonomous Albania, though she 
knows it is an absurdity, because she does not want 
peace in the Balkans, except on her own terms. Great 
Britain and France are helping Austria — God knows 
why! What do your people know about Albania? 
He pointed to the warships in the bay and added : 
" To-day is the first birthday of autonomous Albania; 
it is a bad day for all the Balkan States." 

I thought of that suburb in Berlin where there was 
one bank too many, and then of a Conference of 
Ambassadors in London, called to resolve the Albanian 
riddle. Burian* would be there as well as Mensdorff.f 



* Baron Burian, afterwards Count Burian, a prominent Austro- 
Hungarian diplomat both before and during the war. 

t Count Albert Mensdorff, Austro-Hungarian Ambassador in London for 
15 years. 



36 OLD EUEOPE'S SUICIDE 

Austria would speak with no uncertain voice. If the 
British Government had a policy in Albania, it was 
surely an Austrian policy, A division of Albania 
between Servia and Greece was the logical outcome 
of the Balkan War of 1912 ; it might have been effected 
under the control of the Great Powers and guarantees 
could have been exacted for the protection of the 
different nationalities. Far harder questions have 
been dealt with on these lines, since the expulsion of 
the Serbs from the Albanian coast. 



CHAPTEE VI. 

The Second Balkan War and the Treaty of 
Bucharest. 

In April, 1913, representatives of the Balkan States 
were summoned, for the second time, to Great 
Britain, and once again the negotiations threatened 
to drag on interminably. They were cut short, how- 
ever, by Sir Edward Grey, who had lost patience with 
the procrastinating methods of the delegates, and a 
treaty was signed, known as the " Peace of London." 

So ended the first Balkan War. Turkey lost all 
her territory in Europe except Turkish Thrace, which 
served as a hinterland to Constantinople; Bulgaria 
acquired Adrianople and Dede Agatch as her share 
of the spoil ; the Greeks retained Salonika and Cavaila ; 
the Serbs still occupied Monastir; Albania was 
declared an autonomous kingdom, whose frontiers 
were to be delimited under the direction of an 
Ambassadors' Conference in London, while an Inter- 
national Commission assisted the local Government, 
pending the appointment of a King. 

The Peace Treaty registered the defeat of Turkey; 
it did little more, and was merely a rough and ready 
attempt to reconcile the conflicting aims and aspira- 
tions of the victors. Rumania added fresh complica- 
tions by demanding compensation from Bulgaria for 
having played a neutral part during a Balkan War. 
Another conference of Ambassadors was assembled in 
Petrograd to arbitrate upon this point. 

The Bulgarian delegate in London had been M. 
Daneff, a rude, overbearing Macedonian who incensed 

57 



58 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

and irritated all those with whom he came in contact. 
The selection of this man for so delicate a mission 
was, to say the least, unfortunate. To many it 
appeared suspicious that M. Daneff should have been 
sent, when M. Gueshoff, the Prime Minister, and a 
man of reasonable and moderate views, could have 
gone in his place; it looked as if King Ferdinand of 
Bulgaria had already become entangled in the meshes 
of Austro -Hungarian diplomacy, whose object was the 
disruption of the Balkan League. M. Daneff rejected 
the overtures and proposals of Greeks, Serbs, 
Rumanians and Turks with equal contempt. As a 
result, Bulgaria became more and more isolated. 
Potential enemies surrounded her on every side, but, 
blinded by arrogance and false counsel, she disdained 
the alliance of any neighbouring State. 

At the end of June, the storm broke. The signature 
of peace had enabled the Bulgarian Government to 
concentrate troops in Eastern Macedonia, in close 
proximity to the Servian army of occupation. The 
soldiers of the two armies fraternised with one another 
and, to all appearances, the Bulgars had the friend- 
liest intentions. The first act of war took place before 
dawn on June 30 when, without warning, the Servian 
outpost line was attacked and driven in by a numeri- 
cally superior force of Bulgars. The Serbs recovered 
themselves speedily, reinforcements were hurried to 
the front attacked, and a counter-attack was made 
which drove the Bulgars in confusion from the field. 
Servian successes had an immediate effect on the 
Government at Sofia. The treacherous offensive of 
June 30 was repudiated and ascribed to the personal 
initiative of General Savoff, one of Bulgaria's most 
nctorious " men of action " and a favourite of the 
King. The repudiation came too late. All the other 
Balkan States combined against Bulgaria, and within 



THE SECOND BALKAN WAR 59 

three months of the signing of peace in London, Greeks 
and Serbs were fighting their late ally in Macedonia, 
while Turks and Kumanians invaded her territory 
from the east and north. 

The Bulgars soon found themselves in a desperate 
plight; no amount of stubborn valour at Carevoselo* 
could protect Sofia against the Eumanians or save 
Adrianople from the Turks. By the end of July the 
Bulgarian Government was forced to sue for an 
armistice to save their country from utter ruin. The 
day of reckoning had come for an inexcusable and 
odious crime. 

In the first week of August, the delegates of the 
Balkan States assembled at Bucharest to negotiate yet 
another peace. Their task was not an easy one. 
Public opinion in Servia and Greece was exultant and 
clamouring for vengeance; in Turkey, Enver Pasha, 
the saviour of Adrianople, was at the zenith of his 
fame. From elements such as these a judicial frame 
of mind was not to be expected; they were blinded 
by hatred, pent up through decades of jealousy and 
fear. Enver cherished ambitious dreams, counted 
on German help, and knew no scruples; the majority 
of the Greeks and Serbs aimed at reducing Bulgaria 
to a state of impotence. Had it been possible, they 
would have exterminated the entire race. 

A few courageous voices were raised in protest 
against a too brutal application of the principle that 
every country has the government it deserves; they 
declared it a crime to visit the sins of the rulers on 
their hapless subjects; they claimed that the Bulgarian 
people, as distinct from their rulers, had been punished 
enough already; that Bulgaria had been bled white 

* A place close to and just outside the S.-W. frontier of Bulgaria, 
where the Bulgars resisted the combined attacks of the Servian and 
Greek armies for 14 days. 



60 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

and had made many sacrifices in a common cause; 
that she had lost much of her power for evil, and 
might, if properly handled, lose the will ; they pleaded 
that justice should be tempered with common sense, 
if not with mercy, and urged that the folly of exas- 
perating millions of virile peasants, and thereby 
driving them into closer union with the Central 
Empires, against all their racial instincts, should be 
foreseen and checked. 

The men who dared to speak with the voice of 
reason were called pro-Bulgars in Greece and Servia; 
they went to Bucharest, hoping to find a more objec- 
tive spirit. 

Many factors combined to make the Eumanian 
capital the most suitable meeting-place for the Balkan 
delegates on this momentous occasion. Rumania had 
struck the decisive blow without bloodshed; her army 
was intact and her treasury was not depleted; her 
territorial claims were inconsiderable and had been 
submitted to the Great Powers for arbitration ; lastly, 
in her King Rumania possessed a personage peculiarly 
fitted to mould and direct, dispassionately, the pro- 
ceedings of the Conference. 

King Charles was a man advanced in years who had 
served his adopted country both faithfully and well. 
The Rumanian people felt for him gratitude and 
respect. At this period they would have followed 
loyally in any course he chose to take. As head of 
the elder and Catholic branch of the Hohenzollern 
family, the King of Rumania was in close touch with 
the courts of the Central Empires and with King 
Constantine of Greece. 

In short, fate had conferred on this Hohenzollern 
prince unrivalled authority in his own country, access 
to powerful channels of persuasion, and in relation to 



THE SECOND BALKAN WAR 61 

the other Balkan States, forces sufficient to impose 
his will. He could, had he willed, have been arbiter 
of the Balkans and might have changed the course 
of history. In the event, he preferred to stand aside. 

History is full of such " might have beens." Time 
is a kind of fourth dimension affecting every human 
action. King Charles's opportunity occurred when he 
was old and tired. Made over-cautious by his know- 
ledge of the play of external forces on the Balkan 
situation, he feared a general conflagration, which 
might consume his life's work at a stroke; and so he 
left ill alone, and hoped to end his days in peace. 

Probably the best known of King Charles's ministers 
in 1912 was M. Take Jonescu, whose tireless energy 
in the cultivation of relationships and souvenirs in 
foreign capitals had earned for him the title of " the 
Great European." This title was not undeserved, 
though applied ironically in nine cases out of ten. 
M. Take Jonescu had acquired the habit of generalising 
from Eumanian affairs so as to make them embrace 
the whole of the old world and the new; this had 
enlarged his horizon and given him a vision which at 
times was startlingly prophetic. He recognised more 
clearly than any of his countrymen the role of 
Rumania at the Conference and what could and should 
be done. The restless, versatile man of the people 
was fascinated by the splendid possibilities of a bold 
and imaginative Rumanian policy. Not so his col- 
leagues of the Conservative Party; they opposed 
inertia to ideas, and behind them stood the King. M. 
Take Jonescu had a lawyer's training and was no 
champion of lost causes. This cause was lost indeed 
while King Charles was on the throne; only a 
cataclysm could have saved it — a " Cascade des 
Trones."* The Rumanian statesman foresaw, and 

* " A Cascade of Thrones." The title of a series of articles published 
by M. Take Jonescu in 1915. 



62 OLD 'EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

in his vaguely anarchic fashion wished for this con- 
summation, about which he was to write a few years 
later, but the lawyer threw up his brief and devoted his 
undoubted talents to bargaining and the conclusion of 
a Treaty which King Charles himself described as a 
" drum-head truce." In the Near East, men have 
a passion for subtle and tortuous negotiations, which 
are comprehended in the phrase " un marchandage 
Balkanique," which end in compromises, effect no 
settlement, and serve to postpone the evil day. 

The Austro -Hungarian representative in Bucharest 
must have heaved a sigh of relief when it became 
clear that Kumania's participation in the Conference 
would be restricted to land-grabbing in the Dobnrja.* 
Silistria and a district from which one of the best 
Bulgarian infantry regiments drew its recruits were 
claimed, and eventually annexed, by Eumania. No 
great extent of territory this, but enough to hurt. 

The French and British press, skimming lightly on 
the surface of the Conference, dealt with personalities 
in preference to principles. M. Venizelos was their 
favourite delegate, and held that position to the end. 
Success in any walk of life is profitable; success in 
rebellion is the shortest road to fame. M. Venizelos 
had begun his career as a Cretan rebel. In 1913 he 
shared with King Constantine the honours of two 
victorious campaigns in Macedonia, and was credited 
with the resurrection of the old Hellenic spirit. At 
Bucharest this remarkable man was in a difficult 
position ; his sole rival in the affections of the Greek 
people was his sovereign, to whom he owed the 
allegiance of a subject and with whom his personal 
relations were far from cordial. The considered 
judgments of M. Venizelos favoured concessions to 



" Balkan haggling, 
t See map. 



THE SECOND BALKAN WAR 63 

Bulgaria in regard to Cavalla and its hinterland; to 
any such suggestions the King replied with a 
categorical refusal. Fearful of forfeiting popularity 
by any act which would diminish the aggrandisements 
of Greece, M. Venizelos was perpetually balancing 
between his conception of Balkan statesmanship and 
concern for his own reputation. Eventually, the 
latter gained the day. Cavalla was retained by Greece 
and another bone of contention was created between 
Greeks and Bulgaria. The presence of Servian and 
Turkish delegates at Bucharest was purely formal. 
Like the daughters of the horse-leech, their cry was— 
give; to have given them more than what they had 
already taken would have brought on another war, 
and no one was prepared for that. Servia's retention 
of Monastir was sanctioned, the Turks remained at 
Adrianople. The Bulgars, crestfallen and daunted 
for a time, retained a part of Thrace, including Dede 
Agatch and Porto Lagos ; they were alone and friend- 
less; the sympathies of Eussia, the one-time liberator, 
had been 'estranged. They turned their eyes, reluc- 
tantly, towards the Central Empires and nursed a 
fell revenge. 

In due course, the Treaty of Bucharest was signed 
by the contracting parties. It has never been omcially 
recognised by the Great Powers, yet by many it is 
accepted as a basis for future readjustments in the 
Balkan Peninsula. Fallacies are of rapid growth, they 
none the less die hard. The negotiations had been, 
in fact, a diplomatic duel between Eussia and Austria- 
Hungary, the first clash between two mighty 
movements— the "Drang nach Osten " * and Pan- 
Slavism. Austria-Hungary had won. The new fron- 
tiers were a triumph for her diplomacy. Servia, 
though victorious, was enclosed as in a net; on the East 

• " The Thrust to the East." 



64 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

an irreconcilable Bulgaria; on the West, Albania torn 
by internal discord, and fast becoming an outpost of 
the Central Empires; on the South Greece, where Ger- 
man influence was daily gaining ground. Killed by 
its authors the Balkan " Bloc " was dead; a new 
element had been introduced into the balance of power 
in Europe, Servia and Bulgaria were doubtful States 
no longer, they were in opposite camps, and, when the 
lassitude caused by two cruel wars had passed, they 
could be set at each other's throats again to fight for 
interests not their own. 

Great Britain had held aloof from the proceedings 
of the Conference. Our Minister in Bucharest had 
received instructions to take neither part nor lot in 
the negotiations; if called upon for an opinion he was 
to endorse that of his Eussian colleague. If the British 
Government had any Balkan policy at all it was, 
apparently, a Russian policy, a vicarious partisanship, 
an acquiescence in the pernicious doctrine that two 
wrongs may make a right. 

A gaping wound had been made in Europe's side, 
the surgeons bad met together at Bucharest, and 
fearing to probe had sewn it up with clumsy stitches. 
Wounds are not healed by surgery such as this, not 
only do they open up again, their poison spreads, 
attains some vital organ, and causes death. Good 
surgery needs knowledge, foresight, courage, the power 
and will to act. The men, who from ignorance or 
inertia neglected and dallied with the Balkan problem, 
were scarcely less guilty than the criminals, who of 
set purpose, made a peace which sewed the seeds of 
war. 

During the summer of 1913 a spell of intense heat 
occurred in the fertile plains of the Danube valley; in 
every village dirt and insanitary conditions encouraged 
flies, winged insects swarmed by night and day, 



THE SECOND BALKAN WAE 65 

revelling in filth and carrying disease. The Eumanian 
peasants who had marched into Bulgaria had been 
attacked by a more deadly enemy than the Bulgarian 
hosts — -the cholera microbe pursued them to their 
homes; the malady assumed an epidemic form and 
raged at first unchecked. 

To some it seemed an act of retribution for an 
unrighteous peace, a manifestation of stern justice, 
dubbed divine, although its victims were the innocent 
and weak. The rich escaped by fleeing to hill stations 
or the sea, the poor, perforce, remained and died by 
hundreds, their families were decimated, their fields 
were left untilled, a blight had fallen on this pleasant 
land. 

In her hour of trial Bumania discovered an unex- 
pected source of strength and consolation. Calamity 
had called, and from her castle in the mountains an 
English Princess came, leaving the fragrant coolness of 
the woods for stifling heat and misery in myriad shape, 
down in the sun-scorched plain. In every cholera 
camp her white-clad form was seen moving from tent 
to tent, bringing the tonic of her beauty, restoring 
hope, dealing out pity with a lavish hand. To humble 
folk weighed down by suffering, it was as though an 
angel passed, and memories cluster still around those 
days, weaving a web of gratitude and loving kindness, 
a web to outward seeming, frail and unsubstantial, but 
unbreakable, surviving all the shocks of war, binding 
the people to their Queen. 

I returned to London through Sofia and Belgrade. 
After the festivities of Bucharest the aspect of both 
these Capitals was sad indeed. Victor and vanquished 
alike were reaping the aftermath of war; bedraggled 
soldiers thronged the streets, no longer saviours, not 
even heroes, merely idle citizens, useless until 
demobilised. 



66 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

Erom Belgrade my duties called me to Vienna. As 
the train crossed the railway bridge to Semlin, I saw 
again the guns and searchlights on the Save's Hun- 
garian bank. Austria-Hungary had not yet decided 
on her course of action, but she was ready. The 
Balkan Allies of 1912 had had their frolic, poor rabbits, 
they had paused for breath, and now had time to think. 
No longer Allies, they were helpless puppets, con- 
trolled by strings whose ends were held in Petrograd 
and Vienna. Victims, not wholly innocent, they 
would crouch and wait; already it seemed as if a 
Python-State had stirred. 



CHAPTEE VII. 

Two Men Who Died. 

I. First Man. A Simple Soldier. 

Near Krivolak, in the Vardar Valley, a road strikes 
westward, joining the railway with the plains lying 
beyond a wall of mountains. At first, it winds in 
tortuous fashion, following a streamlet's rocky bed, 
aDd, ever rising, leads to a tableland, where other roads 
are met, and signposts point the way to Monastir. 

The Vardar Valley is a rift of gentle beauty in a 
wild, inhospitable land, the mother of many tributaries 
coming from east and west. It broadens on its journey 
to the sea, the plains adjoin and almost touch each 
other, like glowing pearls strung on a silver thread. 
One of these plains lies north of Krivolak, and here the 
valley of the winding stream and road sinks like a 
lovely child into its mother's lap. The war had made 
it a Gehenna, where wagons creaked and jolted, and 
the once silent spaces echoed with moans of pain. 

In the main valley, close to the railway station, some 
tents were grouped around a mast, and from the mast 
there waved a Bed Cross "flag. During the hours of 
darkness a lamp replaced the flag ; both served as guide 
and landmark to the countryside, inviting all who 
needed help to this outpost of humanity. 

Here were received convoys of sick and wounded, 
some to regain their health and strength, others to 
join their comrades in the graveyard which grew in 
size with each succeeding day. They arrived in a 
lamentable condition, bruised by rough travel in 
springless wagons, their wounds neglected, and too 
often gangrened. From them one learned how long 

67 



68 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

the way had seemed, how from afar their eager, 
straining eyes had sought the fluttering flag or the 
red lamp, which marked the bourne where respite 
would be found after long days and nights of misery. 

Amid the scores of human wrecks littering the Red 
Cross camp one man attracted my especial notice — a 
young Servian soldier. He lay at full length on a 
stretcher, and sometimes raised himself to a half-sitting 
posture, but soon fell back again exhausted by the 
effort. Both his legs had been shattered by shrapnel 
below the knees, a blanket concealed them, mercifully 
he did not know the worst. The surgeon whispered 
that it was a hopeless case, gangrene was far advanced, 
the long, well-coupled legs were doomed, only by 
amputation could his life be saved. 

He thanked me for some cigarettes and smiled a 
boyish smile, showing a row of splendid teeth. His 
uniform was caked with mud and hung in rags, the 
muscles rippled on his arms and chest, which, though 
unwashed, were clean, nature had kept them so. 

The war had been a great event for him, he quite 
ignored its tragic side, and talked of battles and a 
charge, of how he'd killed a Turk, and then he added : 
" In a few months I will be well again and fit to fight 
the Austrians." His home was in the Drina high- 
lands, he had grown up under the shadow of the 
northern neighbours, and learned to hate them with his 
mother's milk. Yet still he kept his sunny tempera- 
ment, the priests who preached race hatred had not 
destroyed his soul. 

Our conversation had a sudden ending. Two 
orderlies came to take the stretcher and bear it to a 
tent, the movement made the blanket slip, and once 
again the soldier raised himself instinctively — saw what 
was waiting for the surgeon's knife, a mangled mass 
of splintered bones, torn tendons, rotting flesh, and 
fell back dead. 



TWO MEN WHO DIED 69 

Perhaps it was better thus. A kindly providence 
had done what no man dared to do. That lithe and 
sinewy form, without its legs, might have contained 
a bitter heart, and added yet another drop to hatred's 
overflowing cup. 

I pitied most his mother, she who had blessed the 
day she bore this man child, had seen him grow from 
babe to glorious manhood, and felt her pain and toil 
repaid. I hoped she had many others like him. Some 
Servian mothers had. 

II. SECOND MAN. A PEASANT. 

In the Balkan Peninsula monasteries are more than 
places of refuge for people with monastic minds, they 
minister to a wider public, and are at once hostels and 
shrines, centres of food supply and travellers' gossip, 
where merchants market, while monks pray and sing. 
Their pious founders, long since with the saints, have 
left a saintly work behind them, theirs is an incense 
burnt in the furnace of affliction, mounting to heaven 
on waves of gratitude. 

The Monastery of St. Joachim stands in a quiet 
valley, a mile or more from the main road which links 
Bulgarian Kjustendil with Turkish Uskub, or in 
Servian Skoplje. Down this main road the tide of 
war had swept, leaving a trail of empty granaries, of 
violated homes, and frightened, wailing children. The 
people bore these trials patiently, there was nought 
else to do, but when despair had overcome their hope, 
they one and all, Christians and infidels alike, sought 
consolation at the monastery set amid dark green 
trees. Thither there flocked a hungry, homeless 
crowd, seeking first food and shelter, then repose, and 
finding all in the great caravanserai. 

I, too, had cause to bless St. Joachim for a night's 
rest within the walls left standing by the tolerant Turk. 



70 OLD EUKOPE'S SUICIDE 

One autumn evening, with some other travellers, I 
reached the monastery gate. Close by there rose a 
spring covered with slabs of stone, the water trickling 
through an iron pipe into a rough-hewn trough. We 
paused to let our horses drink, and saw, lying upon the 
ground, a man, or what was left of one. His form was 
rigid, motionless, only the eyes moved, bright, black, 
beady eyes, which flitted restlessly from face to face, 
then turned towards the setting sun and stared, un- 
dazzled, at the flaming pageant, only to leave it soon, 
and throw quick glances here and there at objects 
nearer and more human. 

His story was soon told. He was a Bulgarian soldier 
struck by a Turkish bulleb near the spine and paralysed. 
Some peasants had found him in a field, and filled with 
pity had brought him to where he lay, so that, at least, 
he should not die alone. 

Peasants are always kind, those that had done this 
charitable deed were of no special race, although their 
lives were hard they had not lost their human 
sympathies, even in time of war. 

A woman brought a pillow for his head, a monk 
knelt at his other side repeating words that solace 
dying men. 

And then he spoke. The voice, though weak, rang 
clear; in a hushed silence, it gave the final message of 
a man whose earthly course was run. 

Neither the woman nor the priest had touched the 
peasant's heart. His thoughts were far away, but 
nob with wife or children, nor did the welfare of his 
soul trouble his dying moments. He had a farm in 
the Maritza valley, not far from Philippopolis, there 
he had spent his life, and lavished all his love and care. 
To him that strip of land was very dear, and, dying, 
he remembered it, to give some last instructions for 
the next autumn sowing. 



CHAPTEB VIII. 

" 1914 " Peace and War. 

In the early spring of 1914 a revolution broke out in 
Southern Albania. The Christian Epirotes, renouncing 
allegiance to the Prince of Wied (the sovereign 
appointed by the Great Powers), had set up a pro- 
visional and independent Government at Argyrocastron, 
a mountain village about twenty miles north-east of 
Santi Quaranta. This port lies within easy distance 
of Corfu, and, by a stroke of fortune, I was able to 
land there, in spite of the fact that it was held by the 
insurgents. After a short stay at Argyrocastron I 
went to Athens, where I was received by both King 
Constantine and M. Venizelos. 

The former regarded the revolution from a strictly 
military point of view. He said he had decided to 
take disciplinary measures against officers and men 
of the Greek Army who aided or abetted the Epirotes, 
and- seemed to think that the only duty of Greek 
soldiers was to their King, to whom they owed so much. 
As, apparently, he was without any detailed informa- 
tion on the subject, I did not tell him that numerous 
Greek soldiers, wearing uniforms, were already with 
the insurgent bands. The King was at this time the 
most popular man in Greece, and the consciousness 
of this obsessed him ; he had won his popularty by two 
campaigns, and was meditating a third, against 
Turkey, so soon as his army and his fleet would be 
reorganised and re-equipped. Prussian military 
methods were to be followed, as far as possible, in 

71 



72 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

spite of the fact that a French Military Mission had 
been charged with the training of the troops. King 
Constantine talked like a young officer who had 
recently emerged from a staff college ; coming from the 
ruler of a country his conversation left an impression 
of irresponsibility, one felt he was a dangerous, though 
well-meaning man. 

M. Venizelos was moved, almost to tears, on hearing 
of the pitiable condition of the Greek refugees from 
Central Albania, but explained his utter helplessness 
to relieve their lot. Albania was under the protection 
of the Great Powers, and he feared that any practical 
sympathy for revolutionaries, within the frontiers made 
sacrosanct by the Ambassadors' Conference, might 
entail serious consequences for himself and Greece. 
He inquired after M. Zografos, the head of the Pro- 
visional Government, and one of his most bitter 
political opponents. The latter had referred to M. 
Venizelos in unflattering terms, describing him as 
both incompetent and unprincipled, but, although it 
was evident that no love was lost between the two 
men, the man in power disdained vituperation. 

M. Venizelos spoke with real feeling about the 
religious side of the revolution and the sincerity of 
the peasants in all that concerned their faith. He 
seemed amused at the idea of M. Zografos being 
associated with three Archbishops in the Provisional 
Government. I asked the reason. He confined him- 
self to saying that M. Zografos was very rich. I 
replied that, from what I had seen at Argyrocastron, 
at least one of the Archbishops accepted with patriotic 
resignation this disqualification for the Kingdom of 
Heaven on the part of his political chief, and that he 
had even seemed to enjoy some excellent dinners pre- 
pared by the rich man's cook. 

The Prelates in question were, in point of fact, 
the real leaders of the revolution. Between them 



"1914" PEACE AND WAE 73 

they combined all the qualities needed by their 
peculiar environment. Archbishop Basileus was 
a worldly-minded old gentleman who, beneath a 
venerable exterior, concealed political ability of no 
mean order. Of the other two — one was a meek and 
learned monk, possessed of great authority among the 
local clergy; the third, Germanos by name, was a 
striking and interesting personality. Young, hand- 
some, ascetic, gifted with fiery eloquence, and a3 
religious as his flock, he supplied a moral impulse 
which redeemed much that was trivial in the conduct 
of the revolution; his premature death from consump- 
tion was a real loss to Epirus and its already hopeless 
cause. 

M. Venizelos said little about general Balkan 
matters, he appeared tired and dispirited, and it was 
evident that the Greek Government was not going to 
get itself into trouble over the Epirotes, in spite of 
their pure Greek origin. These unfortunate people 
constituted the wealthiest and most civilised element 
in the population of Albania, they had an indisputable 
right to a large share in the Government of that 
country. This they had not got, and, with the full 
knowledge of the Great Powers, they had been left, 
politically, to the tender mercies of men saturated with 
Turkish traditions, under the nominal Kingship of a 
conceited and ignorant German Prince. 

I reached Belgrade early in April, 1914. The city 
had resumed its normal aspect. The General Staff 
were talking and planning war, the general public was 
more interested in the working of the Commercial Con- 
vention with Greece. In political and diplomatic 
circles vague references were made to certain 
concessions to Bulgaria in the Vardar Valley. These 
latter appeared to me to be so inadequate as to be 
hardly worth discussing, and yet, as matters stood, the 
Serbs refused to offer more. This attitude, however 



74 OLD EUBOPE'S SUICIDE 

Unfortunate, was more reasonable in 1914 than 
at any previous period. In the absence of direct rail- 
way communication between Greece and Servia, the 
Commercial Convention would lose half its point, since 
the only railway line available passed by the Vardar 
Valley through the heart of the " Contested Zone." 
No practicable trace for another line existed, except 
a tortuous route impinging on Albania. 

Ethnical and geographical conditions had conspired 
to make Macedonia a "Debatable Land," the 
creation of an independent Albania had added fuel to 
the flames of discord, it had not only shortened the 
Serbo-Greek frontier and prevented all communication 
by sea, but by thwarting Servian and Greek aspirations 
in that direction, had engendered in both countries an 
uncompromising state of mind. Bulgaria's claims 
remained unaltered, they had become crystallised by 
defeat and disappointment ; amid the shifting sands of 
Balkan politics they stood out like a rock. 

The Great Powers had sacrificed the interests of 
Greece and Servia directly, and those of Bulgaria indi- 
rectly, on the altar of an Autonomous Albania. 
Ingenuous people claimed that this course had been 
dictated by high-minded motives, by a benevolent, if 
tardy, recognition of the principles of self-government, 
whose application in other lands could wait on this 
strange experiment. Naivete" is charming when not 
contaminated with hypocrisy, but one swallow does 
not make a summer; a single act, however specious, 
cannot efface a decade of intrigue. 

An active economic policy in Macedonia had already 
been initiated by the Austro-Hungarian Government. 
The first move was characteristic, a share in the control 
of the Belgrade-Salonika Bailway was claimed, on the 
ground that a large part of the capital for its original 
construction had been subscribed by citizens of the 
Dual Monarchy. British newspapers dealt fully with 



"1914" PEACE AND WAE 75 

the financial aspects of the case, but refrained "from 
criticising a proposition which deprived a sovereign 
independent State of the sole control of a railway 
within its frontiers. The Servian Government tried 
to float a loan with which to buy out the foreign share- 
holders, but failed — high finance is international and 
obdurate to the poor. On ne prete qu'aux riches * 

I stayed in Vienna for a few days on my way to 
London. Here it was generally recognised that, in 
regard to Servia, a dangerous situation was developing, 
which could not be neglected. Many serious people 
frankly expressed the hope that some incident would 
occur which would provide a pretext for taking military 
action against the Serbs. No one wanted war, but 
everyone felt that an end had to be put to ' * an intoler- 
able state of affairs ' ' ; the time for conciliatory 
measures had passed, the Southern-Slav movement 
was assuming menacing proportions, and would wreck 
the Austro-Hungarian Empire, if steps were not 
promptly taken to nip it in the bud. 

Such were the opinions expressed, in private circles, 
by men and women who did not know with what skill 
and ingenuity the net had been spread for Servia. In 
official circles confidence was the prevailing note; the 
lessons of the last two wars had been forgotten In the 
Austrian War Office, where the efficiency of the Servian 
Army was, as usual, under-estimated. Diplomats 
professed to have no faith in the sincerity of Eussia '« 
intentions when posing as the champion of the 
Southern Slavs ; such a policy struck them as being too 
unselfish for the Government of the Czar. 

Cynics are bad psychologists; to them Russia has 
always been an enigma and a source of error. M.. 
Hartwig expressed the Pan-Slav point of view: Servia 
was part of Russia, the Serbs were " little brothers," 

* Loans are made only to the rich. 



76 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

destined once more to reach the Adriatic, to bar the 
highway to Salonika, to fight again, if need arose, iu 
Slavdom's sacred cause. 

The Serbs themselves wanted independence, com- 
plete and definite; tbey hoped to gain it with the help 
of Russia, and then to found an Empire of their own. 
That Empire could be created only at the expense of 
Austria-Hungary, Germany's ally, mate of a monster 
Python State which soon would raise its head. 

Though outwardly at peace, Servia and Bulgaria 
were arming with feverish haste, preparing to take 
their places in Europe's opposing camps. The 
pyramid was rising, taking shape; issues were 
narrowing, effect was succeeding cause ; the disintegra- 
tion of the Balkan bloc had left the Slavs and 
Teutons face to face, the arena was cleared for a titanic 
struggle, those who knew anything of Europe fore- 
told the coming storm. 

Austria -Hungary had not long to wait for the desired 
pretext. The assassination of the Archduke Francis 
Ferdinand was a sufficiently sensational incident to 
satisfy the most exacting. The Dual Monarchy took 
the fatal step, and sent an ultimatum which was its 
death warrant. 

Civilisation stood aghast and feigned a moral indig- 
nation which was far from being sincere. Austria- 
Hungary, in thus using a weak and neighbouring race, 
was acting in strict conformity with moral standards 
which the Great Powers themselves had set. Junkers 
in Germany, Cosmopolitan financiers in Paris, 
Reactionaries in England, and the Czar's Ministers 
in Russia had acted, or were prepared to act in precisely 
similar fashion, each in their separate sphere. In the 
eyes of these men national sentiment was the appanage 
of Great Powers, the day of small States was passed. 
They had admitted the independence of Albania from 
motives of expediency, and at the instance of Austria- 



"1914" PEACE AND WAE 77 

Hungary, the very State which now they should have 
judged. 

The relations between the different European States 
Were those which exist between the denizens of a 
jungle — now moral laws restrained them, the weak were 
the natural victims of the strong. The peoples were 
sometimes passive, at others artificially excited, but 
always helpless and inarticulate, driven like cattle in 
a herd. The " Jingo " Press in every Christian land 
glorified might as right, eminent soldiers told a 
respectful public that militarism alone could save the 
Commonwealth, and that without its wholesome disci- 
pline the nations would decay ; science collaborated in 
the race of armaments, which had become a source of 
riches and a patriotic cult. 

The murder at Sarajevo gave Austria-Hungary 
an opening, she pressed her advantage like a bully bent 
on the destruction of a weak antagonist. Not only 
had the weak to go to the wall, and go there with every 
circumstance of humiliation, a still more signal 
ignominy was needed to mollify the wounded pride of 
men like Tisza ;* they insisted that Belgrade should be 
occupied, and that Servian peasants should, once more, 
endure the horrors of an alien yoke. Only By such 
means could an Archduke be avenged and jungle law 
maintained. Blinded by passion, Austria-Hungary had 
forgotten that there were other carnivori in the jungle 
whose interests were involved. 

The Junkers, capitalists, journalists and soldiers, 
who had led Europe to the verge of the abyss, now 
realised what lay before them, something incalculable, 
immense and elemental. Self-interest was forgotten 
for a moment, even their callous minds recoiled. These 
men had spent their lives talking of European War, 
and making costly preparations for it, but at its near 

♦Count Tisza, leader of the Hungarian Conservatives and ultimately 
assassinated in Budapest by a Hungarian Socialist. 



78 OLD EUBOPE'S SUICIDE 

approach they flinched. In Petrograd a supreme effort 
was made to avert the cataclysm, it was cynical enough 
and revealed the morality of the " Balance of Power " 
in Europe in a brief but pregnant phrase;* Ldchez 
VAutriche et nous lacherons les Frangais was the 
message to the German Government. It came too 
late; public opinion in Eussia was dangerously excited, 
and behind the Eussian people stood another Power 
which also was suffering from " an intolerable state of 
affairs." For nearly fifty years the French had lived 
beneath a sword of Damocles wielded with German 
arrogance, they supported with difficulty the " Three 
Years' Service " system, and had lent much money 
to the Eussians; the French Government seized its 
opportunity, France made the Servian Cause her own. 

Three crowned heads symbolised the might and 
power of Central Europe — one, senile, embittered, 
selfish, surrounded by a mediaeval Court; another, 
pompous, vain, ambitious, a war-lord, the apex of a 
social pyramid which recognised no law but force; the 
third, an autocrat whose will was law to millions, a 
man both weak and obstinate, whose character was a 
riddle to those who knew him best. Men such as these 
could not prevent the conflagration; considering their 
influence and position one wondered why it had not 
come before. 

When war became inevitable, the British Empire was 
utterly unprepared in both a mental and material 
sense ; many educated people of the upper classes were 
amazed at each other's ignorance of geography; the 
man in the street awoke from his wonted lethargy, and 
studied geography, as well as ethics, in the pages of the 
Daily Mail. 

On August 10, 1914, a troop train passed through 
Woking Station bound for Southampton Harbour. 

* Abandon Austria and we will abandon the French. 



"1914" PEACE AND WAR 79 

The men were typical " Tommies " of the old Army, 
and were in the highest possible spirits. One of them, 
more curious-minded than the rest, shouted to a 
be-spectacled civilian on the platform, " 'Ow far is 
it from 'ere to Servia, guv 'nor?" The train was in 
motion, and time did not admit of a satisfactory reply. 

After all, at that time, it did not matter where or how 
far away an unknown land like Servia might be ; all 
the best strategists were agreed that Servia's future 
destiny would be settled by a great battle in the West. 
Poor Servia, it would take more than that to save her 
from invasion; for the moment, anyhow, Heaven was 
too high, and her Allies were too far. 

A little over twelve months later, British and French 
troops were being disembarked at Salonika and hurried 
thence to reinforce the already beaten and retreating 
Serbs. I've wondered sometimes whether the light- 
hearted boy, who tried to learn geography at Woking 
Station, was of their number. 

He may have struggled up the Vardar Valley and 
penetrated narrow gorges, where the railway, for want 
of space, follows the ancient road. He may have seen 
the mountains of Old Servia and caught an echo from 
their frowning heights: " Too late, too late, ye cannot 
enter now." 



CHAPTEE IX. 

1915, — The Neutral Balkan States. 

My duties recalled me to the Balkan Peninsula in the 
early spring of 1915. None too soon, the Allied 
Governments had turned their attention to Near 
Eastern problems and had decided to dispatch an 
Expeditionary Force to retrieve their damaged prestige 
in the East. The main objectives were the Dardanelles 
and Constantinople, respectively the gateway and the 
pivot of the Ottoman Empire and points of inestimable 
strategic value for the future conduct of a world-wide 
war. Imperial policy, in its widest and truest sense, 
dictated this course of action and, ,as was natural and 
logical, the Allied Power which had most at stake 
supplied the initiative and took the lead. 

Great Britain, in its dual capacity of guardian of the 
sea-routes of the world and the greatest Mohammedan 
Power, has seldom been in a more critical^ position. 
Germany and Turkey acting in combination could 
approach the Suez Canal through Asia Minor, the Bed 
Sea through Arabia and the Persian Gulf through 
Mesopotamia ; enemy successes in these three direc- 
tions could hardly fail to have an adverse influence on 
Mohammedan opinion and, under such conditions, 
India itself would not be safe. The foundations of the 
British Empire were endangered, threatened by forces 
both open and insidious; a British policy, framed by 
men who understood their business, was the only 
Allied policy which could properly meet the case. The 
British statesmen then in office faced this grave 
situation with steady eyes, and reached a conclusion 

81 



82 OLD EUEOPE'S SUICIDE 

which, at the time, was widely criticised, but, to their 
credit, they persisted in it. 

The fiat went forth from Downing Street, and on the 
experts of Whitehall devolved the task of evolving a 
strategy in harmony with policy. 

Experts, of any kind, are good servants but bad 
masters; they are prone (to pessimism when called to 
work outside their special spheres, and are, as a rule, 
indifferent prophets; like the Spaniards, they often 
seem wiser than they are. Expert and official opinion 
on both sides of Whitehall was opposed to the expedi- 
tion to the Dardanelles. The North Sea drew the 
Navy like a magnet, there it was felt the decisive 
battle would be fought, and the desire of islanders was 
natural to make security doubly sure. Mr. Winston 
Churchill devoted all the resources of his forceful and 
energetic personality to Eastern Naval preparations, he 
had both courage and imagination, and brushed aside 
the protests of officials within his jurisdiction, but these 
were not the only obstacles — sometimes he must have 
wondered whether a chasm had not replaced the 
thoroughfare which separates the Admiralty from the 
War Office. In the latter building, an old machine, 
under new and inexperienced direction, was creaking 
uneasily, barely able to stand the strain caused by 
the war in France. To the War Office staff, it seemed 
as if Pelion had been piled on Ossa, when they were 
asked to co-operate with the Navy in a distant expedi- 
tion, whose scope and nature brought into strong 
relief their mental and material unpreparedness. 
Eefuge was sought in procrastination, difficulties were 
exaggerated, the many human cogs of a complex 
machine groaned in the throes of a new and unwelcome 
effort. 

In enterprises of this nature, risks must be taken, a 
circumspect and timid strategy misses the mark. In 
this particular instance, time was the essence of the 



1915.— NEUTRAL BALKAN STATES 83 

problem; a single Division, at the psychological 
moment, was worth nine arriving late; a military 
force of 20,000 men, acting in close support of the 
Allied Navies, could have achieved success where a 
host a few weeks later, even if ably led, might fail. 
The stakes were enormous, the obstacles, both naval 
and military, formidable but not insuperable. A calm 
appreciation of the situation should have convinced the 
most doubting spirits that Constantinople could be 
taken by a well-timed and vigorous stroke. At this 
period Turkey was isolated, her forces were dis- 
organised and short of ammunition, the Germans were 
unable to send either reinforcements or war material to 
this theatre, except in driblets. The position of Enver 
Pasha was precarious, his enemies were numerous and 
active, they had viewed with profound misgivings the 
rapid growth of German influence, and were ready for 
a change. Constantinople was ripe for revolution; the 
wheel had turned full circle, the Allies, by the irony 
of fate, could count on assistance from reactionary 
elements converted by mistrust of Germany into 
potential supporters of our cause. The neutral 
Balkan States were waiting and, in their hearts, long- 
ing for Allied intervention, it meant the solution of 
many complicated problems, and they preferred even 
unpleasant certitude to doubt. 

A turning point in history had been reached; states- 
men had ordained the expedition and left its execution 
to amphibious experts; prompt, energetic action based 
on careful plans was needed, action combining force on 
land and sea. A watching world was wracked with 
expectation, something portentous was about to 
happen, the Small States held their breath. In White- 
hall, an official mountain trembled slightly, and forth 
there crept a tardy, unready mouse. 

While troops were being crowded pell-mell into 
transports and hurried to Gallipoli, the Foreign Offices 



84 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

in London and Paris took up the question of the 
neutral Balkan States. A suggestion that reinforce- 
ments should be sent to Servia had gained support in 
certain Allied quarters and, since the only available 
port of disembarkation was Salonika, for this, if for 
no other reason, friendly relations with the Greeks 
were sought. Under the cloak of the commercial con- 
vention with Servia, ammunition was already passing 
freely up the Vardar Valley, and it was hoped that 
the precedent thus established might be extended so 
as to cover a still more benevolent neutrality, and 
allow of the passage of French and British troops. 
Greece was the only Balkan State which depended for 
its existence on sea communications, she was com- 
pletely at the mercy of the Allies, and no amount of 
German intrigue, in court and military circles, could 
twist the logic of hard facts. Neither King Con- 
stantine nor his advisers were prepared to accept 
formally a technical violation of Greek neutrality, 
they would have been helpless, however, if the Allies 
had insisted. To a layman, the diplomatic situation 
seemed to be typical of those described in a certain 
class of novel, in which suave but firm diplomacy, 
supported by overwhelming force, meets every protest 
with a soothing phrase and lends an air of elegance to 
the most sordid bargain. When people or States are 
weak, the path of consent descends by hesitating 
stages from "No " through " Perhaps " to " Yes." 
The Allies did not negotiate upon these lines. They 
invited the Greeks to send practically the whole of 
their army to reinforce the Serbs ; in return, they 
undertook to protect Greek communications with 
Salonika, by occupying the " non-contested " zone in 
Macedonia with Allied troops. In all my travels in 
the Balkan peninsula, I had never come across a region 
to which the description " non-contested '"' could be 
applied with any accuracy ; in London and Paris it was 



1915.— NEUTKAL BALKAN STATES 85 

visualised by a miracle of self-deception, and acted like 
a charm. Here was the solution of the Balkan ques- 
tion, an Allied force, immobilised in this mysterious 
zone, would hold the Bulgarians in check, encourage 
the Serbs and reassure the Greeks; Bumania would 
see what efforts we were making and hurry to our aid; 
the Turks, trembling for Adiianople, would make a 
separate peace. 

For the moment the Greek Government was unable 
to entertain the proposed arrangement; King Con- 
stantino and the Greek General Staff rejected the 
suggested plan of operations and put forward another 
of their own, which envisaged a second campaign 
against Turkey and opened up alluring prospects 
further East. Temporarily, the negotiations failed to 
secure either the co-operation of the Greek Army or a 
more benevolent neutrality on the part of Greece. The 
political situation in Athens became more and more 
confused. Allied diplomacy paid assiduous court to 
M. Venizelos and, thereby, excited the jealousy and 
mistrust of the King. Telegrams from an Imperial 
War Lord addressed to " Tino " flattered the 
monarch's vanity as a strategist, he laughed, with 
some reason, at our tactics, and grew convinced we 
could not win the war. 

Sofia presented a very different aspect from Athens. 
In the Bulgarian capital there was little bustle in the 
streets, political excitement was not apparent, the 
inhabitants went about their business quietly and, in 
the case of most of them, that business was military 
in its nature. Bulgaria, though unwilling to commit 
herself prematurely, still nursed her wrongs ; to obtain 
redress for these was the object of the entire people, 
and no neutral State was better prepared for war. 

The alliance of Bulgaria was on the market, obtain- 
able by either set of belligerents ait a price ; that price 
was the territory in Thrace and Macedonia, of which 



86 OLD EUKOPE'S SUICIDE 

Bulgaria considered she had been wrongfully deprived 
by the Treaty of Bucharest. If the Allies could have 
satisfied the Bulgarian Government on this point, the- 
Bulgarian Army would have been employed with the 
same soulless ferocity against the Turks as, in the end, 
it displayed against the Serbs. 

The situation was clearly denned, and the role of 
diplomacy limited to the manipulation of cross-cur- 
rents of popular feeling and personal sympathies, 
which, in Bulgaria as in every other State, divided 
opinion among several political camps. Unfortunately 
for the Allies, neither the British nor the French repre- 
sentative in Sofia had the requisite qualifications for 
making verbiage about a " non-contested " zone pass 
for a definite policy in the Balkans. The British 
Minister was — rightly or wrongly — credited with 
Servian sympathies, the French Minister was not a 
" persona grata " with King Ferdinand, whose favour 
was all-important in a diplomatic sense. There does 
not appear to have been any reason for the retention 
of either of these officials in their posts, except the 
habitual unwillingness of government departments to 
disturb routine. The difficulty of finding substitutes 
did not arise in either case. Our Foreign Office had 
at its disposal a brilliant young diplomatist, with a 
unique experience of Balkan capitals, who could have 
rendered more useful services as Minister in Sofia than 
as Counsellor of Embassy in Washington; a well- 
selected French aristocrat would have received a 
cordial welcome from a Prince of the Orleans family, 
who himself controlled Bulgaria's foreign policy, and 
whose " spiritual home " was France. The foregoing 
were some of the imponderable factors in Bulgaria; in 

1914 they could have been turned to good account, in 

1915 it was perhaps too lajte. 

In time of war, a diplomatic duel is like a game of 
cards in which victories are trumps; no amount of 



1915.— NEUTEAL BALKAN STATES 87 

diplomatic skill can convert defeat into success. 
During the spring and summer of 1915, our Diplomats 
in the Balkans fought an unequal fight. The convic- 
tion that a stalemate existed on the front in France 
and Flanders was daily gaining ground, public atten- 
tion was concentrated on the Dardanelles, and here the 
operations were followed with an interest as critical as 
it was intelligent. During the war against Turkey, the 
topographical features in this theatre had been closely 
studied by the Bulgarian General Staff, when a portion 
of the Bulgarian Army had penetrated into Turkish 
Thrace as far as the lines of Bulair. To these men our 
tactics became daily more incomprehensible. At first 
the assaults on the Western extremity of the Gallipoli 
Peninsula were taken to be feints, intended (to cover a 
landing in the neighbourhood of Enos, but, when it 
w ; ais realised that these were the major operations, 
when thousands of lives were sacrificed for the capture 
of a few bare and waterless cliffs, their bewilderment 
became intensified, and into all their minds there 
crept a doubt. General Fitcheff, the Chief of Staff and 
a man whose English sympathies were widely known, 
ran considerable risks by giving his expert advice in 
regard to a landing on the coast near Enos ; he was no 
arm-chair critic but a practical soldier with recent and 
personal experience of battlefields in Thrace. His 
views were identical with those of the King of Greece 
and, indeed, of the vast majority of soldiers in the 
Balkans, they were rejected or ignored; a pseudo- 
omniscient optimism pervaded Allied counsels and 
acted like a blight. 

Our friends in Bulgaria contemplated the useless 
slaughter at Gallipoli with horror and dismay, waverers 
turned to German agents, who took full advantage of 
every change of mood. An influx of German officers 
and officials began about this time ; they had access to 
all Government departments, and assumed control of 



88 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

part of the Bulgarian railway system ; as one result of 
their activities Constantinople received supplies of 
ammunition, whose Bulgarian origin was suspected if 
not known. 

The journey from Sofia to Bucharest lasts less than 
twenty-four hours, its one noteworthy feature is the 
abrupt transition from a Slavonic to a Latin race. The 
Bulgars are reserved and taciturn, strangers are 
treated coldly, they are not wanted unless they come 
on business whose utility can be proved. I left Sofia 
impressed by the efficiency and self-confidence of the 
people, but chilled by their morose and almost sullen 
ways. On crossing the Danube a new world was 
entered, where hearts were warm and life was gay and 
easy, where everyone talked cleverly and much, and 
where, perhaps, words counted more than deeds. 

In the spring of 1915 Bucharest was a diplomatic 
arena, in which all the Great Powers were making pro- 
digious efforts. Russia had ceased to treat her 
southern neighbour a:S a revolted colony; the Central 
Empires had developed a sudden sympathy for 
Rumania's national aspirations, more especially in 
the direction of Bessarabia ; Great Britain had made a 
loan of £5,000,000, on little or no security, and, as a 
further proof of disinterested friendship, was buying 
a large proportion of the output of the oilfields, regard- 
less of the impossibility of either using or exporting this 
more than ever precious product. A golden age had 
dawned, business men were doing a roaring trade, 
cereals were being bought ait fancy prices and, looming 
ahead, were brighter prospects still. 

I looked for the warlike preparations of which the 
War Office in London had so confidently spoken. Of 
officers there appeared to be no dearth, the streets and 
oaf 6s were crowded with brilliant uniforms, whose 
wearers sauntered slowly to and fro, bestowing glances 
on the softer sex which were returned in kind. To 



1915.— NEUTRAL BALKAN STATES 89 

seek the favour of the fair has at all times been a 
martial occupation. A wise man once remarked: "I 
know not how, but mantial men are given to love," 
and added some comments on perils, wine and 
pleasures which seemed to fit this case. But war is 
not made with officers alone, men are required, men 
of the people, who have no decorative functions in the 
piping times of peace. These were lacking, they were 
neither on the streets nor in the barracks, they were 
in their homes, producing wealth and not yet bearing 
arms. 

Bumania was not prepared for war; no reservists 
had been mobilised, training depots were at normal 
strength, there was a shortage of horses for the 
Cavalry and Field Artillery, the Heavy Artillery was 
deficient both in quality and quantity, the aviation 
equipment was out of date, last but not least, the 
reserve stocks of ammunition had been depleted, and 
the_ Bumanian arsenals lacked the plant needed for 
their replenishment and the maintenance of an armv 
in the field. J 

A policy which co-ordinated diplomacy and strategy 
would have carefully weighed the " pros " and " cons°" 
-of an alliance with Bumania. The mere presence of 
an army in a certain geographical position means little, 
unless that army is an organisation ready to act, con- 
taining within itself the means whereby its action can 
be sustained. Bumania was a granary of corn, a 
reservoir of oil, both valuable commodities, though 
more so to our enemies than ourselves, but, from a 
military point of view, the co-operation of this land 
of plenty involved a heavy charge To meet this 
charge, not only had guns and ammunition to be sent, 
the Bumanian Army was short of everything, includ- 
ing boots and clothes. Supply alone, though at this 
period difficult enough, did not completely solve the 
problem, delivery required communications capable of 



90 OLD EUEOPE'S SUICIDE 

transporting at least 300 tons a day. No such 
communications existed between Kumania and the 
Western Powers. Imports could reach Bucharest or 
Jassy only through Servia or Eussia. the railways in 
both countries were inefficient and congested, to send 
ammunition by these routes in time of war was to pass 
it through a sieve. The prophecy, made in May, 1915, 
that the then existing communications could not 
deliver more than a seventh of Eumania's require- 
ments was well within the mark. 

In short, in the spring and summer of 1915, the 
alliance of Eumania would have been for the Western 
Powers a doubjtful advantage and a heavy responsi- 
bility. The first of these considerations might, at 
least, have restrained the French Minister at 
Bucharest from demanding Eumanian intervention 
with a vehemence, which too frequently degenerated 
into insult ; it was fully appreciated by the Grand Duke 
Nicholas who, in his quality of Eussian Generalissimo, 
described as " une folie furieuse " what the French 
Diplomat thought would turn the scale in favour of 
the Allied cause. The second consideration should 
have appealed to the British Government, the repre- 
sentatives of a people who look before they leap. 
British statesmanship had inspired the Near Eastern 
policy of the Allies, and had chosen as first objectives 
Constantinople and the Dardanelles. Impartial his- 
torians will justify this choice ; here lay the key of the 
whole Balkan situation, here were the lever and (the 
fulcrum with which to actuate the Neutral States. 
Once masters of Constantinople and its waterways, the 
Allies would have found Eumania willing, when 
ready with their help, to co-operate in a concerted plan, 
her army, based on the Black Sea and the Danube, 
would have become dynamic, a source of strength, 
instead of weakness, to an ineijt and passive Eussian 
front; Bulgaria, reduced to impotence, would either 



1915.— NEUTEAL BALKAN STATES 91 

have kept a strict neutrality or, breaking unnatural 
bonds, have returned to the Eussian fold ; (the Greeks, 
with their eyes on Smyrna, could not have held aloof. 

During the early months of 1915, diplomatic activity 
in Athens and Sofia might have achieved results, it 
might, conceivably, have secured the co-operation of 
the Greeks and Bulgars in our operations at the Dar- 
danelles; at Bucharest the position was wholly 
different. To urge Eumanian intervention at this 
period was foolish and immoral, it demanded an 
immense sacrifice from the Eumanian people which 
could not help the Allies and might do their cause 
incalculable harm. 

Owing to geographical conditions, the Central 
Empires were able to offer Eumania more than 
merely contingent support in return for her co-opera- 
tion and alliance. Numerous railways cross the Car- 
pathians and by means of these the Eumanian army 
could have been promptly equipped and efficiently 
maintained during a forward movement into Bess- 
arabia, a province described by German Diplomats as 
Rumania's "promised land." 

Eumania lay between the upper and the nether 
millstones of belligerent diplomacy, the mill was work- 
ing at high pressure, but was not grinding small. M. 
Bratiano, the Eumanian Prime Minister, was equally 
uninfluenced by the promises of Germany, the blandish- 
ments of Eussia, the taunts of France, and the loans 
of Great Britain. He refused to deviate from a policy 
of more or less impartial neutrality, and awaijted what 
he himself described as " le moment opportun. "* 

Disgruntled allied diplomats and many of his 
countrymen reproached M. Bratiano with lethargy and 
cowardice, in reality they owed him a debt of gratitude ; 
better than they he knew the unreadiness of the army 
and the country for an adventurous policy, and, for- 

* The opportune moment. 



92 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

tunately for Rumania in 1915, he possessed sufficient 
sense and courage to reject their amateurish plans. On 
the other hand, he had too sound a judgment to be 
dazzled by proposals, however specious, which held out 
prospects of territorial conquest at the expense of 
Russia, although, as his father's son,* he suspected all 
Russians of treachery and guile. 

Since the death of King Charles in November, 1914, 
M. Bratiano had been the guiding force in Rumanian 
political life; he stood between the extremists, who 
clamoured for intervention on the Allied side without 
regard for consequences, and the Pro-germans, whose 
hatred and mistrust of Russia had overcome the 
instincts of men of a Latin race ; his influence with 
King Ferdinand was undisputed, he used it to impose 
a neutral attitude, both in the Council and at Court. 
This man had many qualities of high statesmanship, 
he loved his country and had at least one deep convic- 
tion — he was convinced that in the end the Allies 
would win the war. 

" Le moment opportun " of M. Bratiano was the 
moment when Rumania could take up arms to fight 
on the Allies' side, under conditions which would con- 
fer a reasonable prospect of success; in his more 
expansive moods he confessed to cherishing the hope, 
and even the belief, that the Rumanian Army v/ould 
deal the decisive blow. A proud thought this, coming 
from a citizen of a little Neutral State during so great 
a war; but Ion Bratiano was nothing if not proud. 

Events were to put a heavy strain on the Prime 
Minister's faith and hope, times of trial and tempta- 
tion lay ahead, when more garrulous champions of 
the Entente were to give way to doubt. The with- 

•The father of M. Bratiano was the celebrated Rumanian patriot 
who, in 1878, was tricked out of Bessarabia by Prince GortchakofT, the 
Russian Envoy, at the Treaty of Vienna. 



1915.— NEUTKAL BALKAN STATES 93 

drawal from the Dardanelles, Bulgaria's alliance with 
the Central Powers and Servia's subsequent rout were 
incidents charged with grave import to Bumania, and 
destined to postpone indefinitely " le moment 
opportun." M. Bratiano never wavered, he waited 
patiently., by thus resisting the impulses of interest and 
sentiment, he faithfully interpreted the Bumanian 
people's will. 

1915 was a black year for the Allies, a period of 
diplomatic defeats and military disasters. The -officials 
and experts had had their way; the policy, which had 
frightened them and of which they had disapproved, 
had been reversed; Servia, the victim of predigested 
plans, had been overrun, the succour so long demanded 
had been sent three months too late; the Near East, 
save for some ragged remnants, immobilised in Mace- 
donia, had been denuded of troops and abandoned to 
the enemy; the legend of British tenacity and per- 
severance had been tried in a fiery furnace and had not 
survived the test. 

Confusion, both mental and material, prevailed 
throughout the British Empire ; a vague uneasiness 
had entered every mind ; a race of hero-worshippers had 
vainly sought a hero, the market place was strewn with 
broken idols eager to reassert their sway. The war had 
introduced a new dimension, an all pervading 
influence, a nightmare which haunted waking 
moments, a great winding-sheet, a deluge submerging 
human thought. 

During these days of evil omen, i one reassurance was 
vouchsafed, one thought consoled, lightening an 
atmosphere of gloom like a rainbow in a lowering sky. 
The British people, though disillusioned and humi- 
liated, still kept the virtues of their race ; in their hour 
of trial, they rose above misfortune, and proved them- 
selves worthy descendants of the inspired adventurers 
whose heritage they held. Men to whom war was 



94 OLD EUBOPE'S SUICIDE 

odious developed into seasoned warriors, and women, 
who bad never worked before, gave up their lives to 
toil. 

On battlefields, heroic valour was regarded as a com- 
monplace, in countless homes, self-sacrifice became a 
daily rite. In British hearts, despair had found no 
place, theirs was a confidence born of consciousness 
of strength, the strength which in Kinglake's glowing 
words is: " Other than that of mere riches, other than 
that of gross numbers, strength carried by proud 
descent from one generation to another, strength 
awaiting the trials that are to come." 



CHAPTEB X. 
Sleeping Waters. 

Oh Angel of the East one, one gold look 
Across the waters to this twilight nook, 
The far sad waters, Angel, to this nook ! 

Robt. Browning. 

Before Eumania became a kingdom, and while 
Wallachia and Moldavia were separate Principalities, 
under the suzerainty of Turkish Sultans, a Bussian 
Army occupied the land, the pretext for its presence 
being the maintenance of law and order. The Bussian 
Government appointed as Pro-Consul a certain 
General Kissileff . who planted trees and laid out roads 
and proved himself a wise administrator; the good he 
did survives him, one of the roads he planned and built 
commemorates his name. 

The Chauss^e Kissileff, or for short The Chauss^e, 
is an avenue of lime trees, which forms the first stage 
of Bumania's "Great North Boad." Four lines of 
trees border two side tracks and the Central Chausse'e. 
During the winter months, their spreading branches 
afford protection from the wind and rain, in spring and 
summer, they fill the air with fragrance and cast a 
grateful shade. This thoroughfare is a boon to 
Bucharest, it Is at once an artery and a lung. Here, 
when Bumania was a neutral, courted State, beauty 
encountered valour, while nursemaids, children, dugs 
and diplomats, of every breed and nation, walked, 
toddled, gambolled, barked, or passed on scandal, 
according to their nature and their age. 

95 



96 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

Beyond the racecourse the Chauss^e bifurcates ; one 
branch I have already called Rumania's " Great 
North Road." It leads, as its name implies, due north 
to the oilfields and the mountains; the other is a 
humbler route, and trends westward across a stretch 
of open country towards a wooded, dim horizon. It 
I will name Rumania's " Pilgrim's Way." 

When I was a dweller in the plain, few houses, large 
or small, stood on " The Pilgrim's Way," which, after 
dipping to a stream, curved to the west and followed 
the northern bank, its bourne some feathery treetops, 
its only guardians cohorts of unseen frogs, whose 
multitudinous voices rose in chorus, ranging the 
diapason of croaking, guttural sounds. This was no 
intermediate zone athwart the road to Hades, but the 
frontier of a region known to some as " Sleeping 
Waters," whose chief city was a garden, on the 
stream's bank, and beyond the distant trees. 

The votaries of wealth and recreation followed the 
" Great North Road," seeking Ploesti's oily treasures 
or villas and a casino at Sinaia, where the gay world 
of Bucharest breathed mountain air in the Carpathian 
foothills, and summer heat was tempered amid 
perennial pines. 

' ' The Pilgrim 's Way ' ' was less frequented , but the 
pilgrims, though not numerous, were, in a sense, 
select. Among them were the Monarch and his 
Queen, the Prime Minister, the representatives of 
several foreign Powers, and men and women wearing 
names which rang like echoes of Rumania's history 
when Princes ruled the land. 

If asked why they made their pilgrimage so often, the 
pilgrims would have answered with a half-truth : " We 
seek serenity in a garden fair, and shade and quiet after 
the city's heat and noise " — they certainly did not go 
to meet each other, nor did they, like Chaucer's 
characters, tell tales and gossip as they fared along the 



SLEEPING WATEES 97 

road they went to the same shrine, but went 

separately, they made their vows to the same Deity, 
but they made them one by one. 

Two landmarks lay beside the road, serving as 
measures of the Pilgrim's Progress, both were pathetic 
and symbolical — one was a broken bridge, which was 
always being repaired in slow and dilatory fashion, the 
other a mill, which never appeared to work. 

Bratiano himself had built bridges in his youth, and, 
speaking both as expert and Prime Minister, he declared 
one day that when the bridge would be completely 
mended Eumania would forswear neutrality and join 
the Allied Cause. A whimsical conceit indeed, but 
illustrative of its author's mood. When Italy, a Latin 
and a sister State, bound, like Eumania, by a Treaty 
to both the Central Powers, had taken the irrevocable 
step, work was resumed upon the bridge with greater 
energy; but soon it languished, and blocks of rough- 
hewn stone encumbered the wayside, mute symbols of 
the hesitation which was still torturing a cautious 
statesman's mind. 

The mill stands at the western end of a broad reach 
of the same stream which traverses the realm of frogs ; 
the waters, held up by a dam, are as still and motion- 
less as a standing pond, and yet they once had turned 
the mill wheel, although, no doubt, they had always 
seemed to sleep. A village begins here where the 
waters broaden; three years ago it was a straggling 
street of squalid houses, where peasants dwelt in the 
intervals of laborious days. Eumanian peasants, at 
this period, lived under laws which left them little 
liberty, and gave them few delights. Their ^ toil 
accumulated riches for their masters, the hereditary 
owners of the soil, while they eked out a scanty live- 
lihood, and though in name free men, in fact they were 
half slaves. 



98 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

Peasants as slaves are seldom rebels. Spartacus 
has won a place in history by being the exception to 
the rule, a rule well known to men who never read a 
book, but feel instinctively that they themselves are 
helpless to redress their wrongs. Such is the bitter 
truth, and those who should know better often presume 
on it, until their victims, exasperated by neglect and 
insolence, lose for a while the habit of forbearance, 
flame into sudden anger, indulge in fierce reprisals, 
and when exhaustion follows relapse into dull despair. 
Wrongs unredressed resemble pent-up waters, which 
seek an outlet, useful or wasteful as the case may be, 
and finding none, in time they sweep away the stoutest 
dam, causing widespread destruction by their 
dissipated force. 

In 1907 a large number of Eumanian peasants had 
revolted. Order, so-called, had been restored by 
employing other peasants, clothed in uniforms, 
to shoot their fellow-sufferers down. The tragedy of 
violence and repression was of but short duration; once 
more the peasants resigned themselves to fate, once 
more their smouldering passions were pent up by a dam 
of military force. 

Bratiano, as leader of the Liberal Party, became 
Prime Minister at the end of 1913; he realised more 
clearly than his predecessors that Rumania's peasant 
population was one of the country's greatest assets, 
and that, under the then existing conditions, this asset 
was not being fully utilised; his Government was 
pledged to a scheme of agrarian reform, and began its 
task with a characteristic act — money was needed, 
but increased taxation meant loss of popularity, and 
so the Army vote was drawn upon, and the equipment 
of the troops neglected. Like many others, Bratiano 
had refused to believe that the German people would 
so abase themselves before the Junkers as to permit 
the latter to provoke a European war; he had been 



SLEEPING WATEES 99 

mistaken, he had erred by rating commonsense too 
high. When Germany's criminal folly became an 
accomplished fact, it found the Rumanian Army 
unprepared, and shattered Bratiano's plans, Eumania, 
though a neutral State, lived in the shadow of the 
cataclysm, perpetually a prey to excursions and alarms : 
reforms in such an atmosphere were impossible, the old 
abuses lingered, the middle classes reaped a golden 
harvest, and further claims were made on the patience 
of the poor. 

Mad misdirection and abuse of human effort were 
disintegrating Central Europe, and had paralysed pro- 
gressive legislation in every neighbouring State. 
During his frequent pilgrimages, a disappointed states- 
man had time for sombre meditations, he may have 
seen a symbol of them in a wide stretch of sleeping 
waters stagnating round a disused mill. 

An avenue of elm trees leads westward from the 
mill, skirting the water's edge; it runs in a straight 
line on level ground, and so, a pilgrim entering by 
the gate could see at the far end, although it was a 
kilometre distant, a walnut tree against a white back- 
ground. When blazing sunlight beat down on the 
fields and swirls of dust choked travellers on the road, 
this avenue was always cool and green and, like a vast 
cathedral's nave, soothed anxious, troubled spirits and 
rested dazzled eyes. At all seasons of the year, an 
innumerable host of rooks circled above the elms, and 
from a choir in the clouds bird -voices pealed in deep- 
toned rapturous crescendos, lulling the memories of 
petty strife and discord brought from the city in the 
plain. 

The avenue terminated at the walnut tree, perhaps 
it does so still— its foliage has been thrice renewed 
since my last pilgrimage, and in those years man's 
action has outpaced the changing seasons— youth has 
learned sorrow over-early, lives have been withered up 



100 OLD EUKOPE'S SUICIDE 

like leaves, few hearts or homes have passed 
unscathed through the fierce ordeal of the war. All 
has been changed, even inanimate objects, robbed of 
the glamour which enveloped them, cannot be quite 
the same; therefore, when picturing these scenes and 
telling of the memories which haunt them, the past 
tense will be used. 

A low, two-storied building, in colour mainly white, 
with wide verandahs embowered in creepers, stood out 
against the sky beyond the walnut tree. The house faced 
south, on both sides and behind it were open spaces 
flanked by greenhouses and walled gardens, through 
which there ran an avenue of Italian poplars, linking 
the village with a private chapel; in front, the 
"sleeping waters" spread out in their full glory, a 
broad and placid surface fringed with willows, which 
leaned away from the supporting banks as though they 
sought their own reflection. Between the waters and 
the house a palace stood, empty but not a ruin, a 
monumental relic of a bygone reign and period; stand- 
ing four square, crowned and protected by a roof of 
slate. Such buildings can be seen in Venice and 
Eagusa, with fluted columns poised on balustrades of 
rich and fanciful design, composing graceful loggias. 

More than two centuries have passed since Bassarab 
Brancovan, a ruling prince, first brought Italian crafts- 
men to Wallachia. The tokens of these exiles' art are 
numerous, but nowhere do they find such perfect and 
complete expression as in this palace, built for the 
prince himself, whose pale, brick walls, with fretted 
cornices and sculptured Gothic windows, are mirrored 
in a glassy surface and framed by willow trees. 

Prince Brancovan must have been a man with a 
skin impervious to mosquitos; the pilgrims who fol- 
lowed in his footsteps learned to tolerate distractions, 
which were inseparable from the site and as much part 
of it as thorns are of a rose's stem. 



SLEEPING WATERS 101 

Within the dwelling-house, the rooms looked larger 
than they were, an optical delusion was produced by 
shadows on floor and ceiling and corners obscured in 
gloom. The curtains hung upon the walls like 
draperies, and chairs and tables were disposed in 
groups, with an unerring instinct for achieving harmony 
between utility and taste. Flowers were never absent 
from these rooms, and made the house a floral temple, 
whose forecourt was alternately the greenhouse and 
the garden, the former produced in January what .the 
latter gave in June. 

Such was the shrine — the presiding Deity was a 
lady still young in years, but learned in history and 
the arts, beyond the compass of most men. With 
her there lived her daughter and an English governess, 
a peacock in the garden and a mouse-coloured Persian 
cat. 

Here, men whose lives were darkened by suspicion 
found a rare atmosphere, where mystery was physical, 
and did not hide the truth ; here, could be learned the 
story of a race from one whose memory was saturated 
with traditions, who faced the future calmly, knowing 
its perils, sustained by hope and faith; here could be 
heard the twin voices of sanity and reason, expounding 
not what Rumania was supposed to think, but what 
Rumania thought. 

In Bucharest, a very different tone prevailed — senti- 
mentality, not wholly free from interest, combined 
with unscrupulous propaganda to misrepresent the 
issues before the Rumanian people and the Govern- 
ment. Even official representatives of the Allied 
Powers joined in the conspiracy of deception. In the 
month of April, 1915, the French Military Attache* 
announced, with all the authority conferred by his 
position and access to secret sources of information, 
that the Germans could not continue the war for more 
than two months from the date on which he spoke; as 



102 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

their stocks of copper were exhausted; the argument 
based on this astounding statement was that Eumania 
should intervene at once, and lay hands on Tran- 
sylvania before it would be too late. In private life 
a man who tried to gain advancement by such methods 
would be locked up for fraud. 

In England and France the ignorance about 
Eumania, even in official circles, was amazing; for 
knowledge ready substitutes were found in prejudices 
and preconceived ideas. These ideas were based on 
reports furnished by Secret Service agents of the most 
obvious description, whose exemplars were the villains 
in the novels of Le Queux, and who were regarded with 
amusement and contempt by people on the spot. The 
information thus obtained consisted of echoes from the 
cafe's and excerpts from the gutter press. It was 
sensational enough, though mischievous and mis- 
leading, and gave satisfaction to officials who never 
faced realities, unless they suited their desires. 

By certain circles at Bucharest, the foibles of the 
Allied Governments were systematically exploited : 
politicians emerged from the shades of opposition into 
a meretricious limelight; bankers and business men 
made deals which opened up an El Dorado, and social 
grudges were revived under the cloak of patriotic zeal. 
While Eumania remained a neutral State, Bucharest 
was a city divided against itself. Two camps were 
formed, a war of words was waged; slander and 
calumny were the weapons, and were wielded by both 
men and women with venom and impunity. 

To minds possessed and poisoned by this ignoble 
strife, the calm serenity of " the sleeping waters " was 
anathema; the extremists and their partisans viewed 
with suspicion a detachment which was as natural as 
it was sincere. They could not understand, far less 
forgive, an attitude of aloofness to their cliques and 
combinations; they were enraged by such neglect, 



SLEEPING WATERS 103 

since, with some reason, they took it for disdain. 
Thoughtless themselves, and caught up in a vortex of 
mental confusion and unreason, they poured the vials 
of their jealousy and hate upon a head as innocent as 
fair, because it dared to think. 

* * * * 

By a strange turn of fate, I meditate this fragment 
of past memories down by the waters of Old 
Nile. Behind me rise the columns of a 
temple, whose capitals portray the Lotus and 
Papyrus, signs of the River God. Before me lies the 
tank, where the god lived three thousand years ago. 
By the same path on which I stand were hurried 
shrieking victims, as sacrifices to a crocodile, an animal 
so dangerous to river folk that they worshipped it, and 
sought to propitiate the object of their fear with their 
own flesh and blood. 

Man's nature has changed little since those days; 
his cruelty takes more subtle forms, but is not a 
whit les3 harsh. His god is Mammon, and his victims 
the poor and weak, or those who, by innate superiority, 
are an unconscious menace and reproach. The sacri- 
ficial act does not consist in killing — to Mammon, 
oblations must be made in such a way as not to roughly 
kill the victims but first to spoil their lives. 



CHAPTER XI. 

1916. — The Disaster in Rumania. 

During the early months of 1916, Bucharest had been 
comparatively neglected by the Foreign Offices of the 
belligerent States. So far as could bo seen, the 
Central Empires had abandoned the hope of obtain- 
ing Rumanian co-operation against Russia. Count 
Czernin* had expressed himself openly to that effect, 
and his German colleague, though more discreet, in 
all probability shared his views. The French and 
Italian Ministers were a prey to exasperation and sus- 
picions ; to them it seemed outrageous that a little Latin 
State should refuse to act on French advice or to follow 
Italy's example; their prejudices warped their judg- 
ment, they lost their sense of dignity, and sank to 
the level of mere partisans. Such men could not 
influence the coldly logical mind of Bratiano, who 
treated them with scorn. The British and Russian 
Ministers were the buttresses of allied diplomacy in 
Bucharest. Both stood for so much; one was the 
spokesman of a people whose good faith and love of 
fair play were still unquestioned, the other was the 
envoy of the only Allied Power in direct contact with 
Rumania, a Power whose past conduct had justified 
mistrust but whose size inspired fear. Through no 
fault of their own, these two men were unable to exert 
their proper influence; neither of them had definite 



* Count Czernin was at this period Austro-Hungarian Minister in 
Bucharest; he succeeded Count Bechtold as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 
the Dual Monarchy after the death of the Emperor Francis Joseph. 

105 



106 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

instructions from his Government, and both had 
learned, from past experience, that under such con- 
ditions it was better to " wait and see." To any dis- 
passionate observer on the spot, this meant — to wait 
on events and see disaster come. 

The perils of premature intervention, both for the 
Allies and the Rumanian people, were only too 
obvious. While Rumania's sole link with the "Western 
Powers was a precarious line of communications 
through Russia, her neutrality was preferable to her 
alliance; the former was no doubt unsatisfactory, but 
the latter exposed a reservoir of food supplies and 
petrol to invasion from the south and west. Even if 
properly equipped and efficiently maintained, the 
Rumanian Army would have had no easy task; in 
the absence of these conditions it was madness to go 
to war. 

In .Paris, the irritation was profound. The French 
Government had assumed control of the negotiations 
with the neutral Balkan States, and was mastered 
by an impatience born of intolerance and fear. This 
frame of mind had been induced by a total miscon- 
ception of the real facts of the case. There was no 
danger that the Rumanian people, however tempted, 
would join the Central Powers. Bratiano surveyed 
the European situation through the same telescope 
as the Allies. He saw their final triumph clearly, but 
knew it was not so close as they imagined. His 
vision, perhaps, had magnified the distance by looking 
through the larger end, but, unlike them, he knew 
the complexity of the problem to be dealt with in the 
East; they viewed it merely as an adjunct to the 
slaughter in the West. 

The Quai d'Orsay was quite incapable of apprecia- 
ting the Rumanian point of view; its self-appointed 
task was "to bring Rumania in." Persuasion, on 
moral and sentimental grounds, had been unavailing. 



THE DISASTEE IN EUMANIA 107 

Some details of the Italian Treaty had leaked out, 
and had revealed a marked absence of the principles 
of self-sacrifice and abnegation, in the cause of liberty, 
on the part of a greater Latin State. It was clear 
that Rumania, like Italy, would have to get her price ; 
much would depend, however, on the way that price 
was paid. 

Eumania claimed Transylvania, together with 
Bukovina and the Banat,* as her share of the spoil, 
in the event of Allied victory; she was eager to 
fight for these Austro -Hungarian provinces, if given 
a fighting chance. Unfortunately for the Allies, no 
amount of eloquence could improve the communica- 
tions through the Eussian Empire, and a second 
attempt to force the Dardanelles was excluded from 
their plans. Arguments based on the presence of 
Allied troops at Salonika, with which it was suggested 
the Eumanian Army might co-operate, were without 
effect, and the statement in this connection that the 
shortest way to Budapest was via Sofia was 
regarded as more picturesque than true. The 
Eumanian Government had no desire to make war 
on the south bank of the Danube, where nothing 
was to be gained, and the Eumanian General Staff 
knew, from experience, the difficulties of a Danube 
crossing if seriously opposed. An operation of this 
nature would have absorbed a large proportion of the 
Eumanian forces, leaving an insufficient number to 
hold the frontier in the Carpathians, which was longer 
than the Allied front in France, while the distance 
from. its nearest point to Bucharest was less than 100 
miles. 

The foregoing were some of the obstacles to 
Eumanian intervention. To overcome them by fair 
means demanded considerable efforts from the Allies 

* An Hungarian province at the confluence of the Danube and the 
Theiss, N.E. of Belgrade. 



108 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

as part of a concerted plan. No such plan existed; 
France could offer nothing except promises of ammuni- 
tion, Great Britain could provide ships and money, 
Russia alone could give support and, if the need arose, 
apply pressure to this neutral State. 

The case of Greece was simpler. There, reluctance 
could be dealt with and ' ' unnatural ' ' behaviour 
punished. The Piraeus could be reached by sea, 
whereas Rumania was land-locked to the Allies. The 
Russian Empire was the neighbour and the only high- 
way, and Germany was near. 

" All is fair in love and war." The Allies had 
passed through the stage of courtship with Rumania; 
their blandishments and arguments had yielded no 
results. Cajolery of agents behind the back of 
Bratiano had also been tried and failed. Now they 
declared war on her neutrality, and, through the force 
of circumstances, let Russia take the lead. 

The British Government had, as usual, no policy in 
the Balkans, and was amenable to French advice. 
A series of diplomatic rebuffs at Athens had confirmed 
our Foreign Office in its traditional attitude of dis- 
interestedness, and the general feeling was that 
Rumania, in common honesty, should intervene, be- 
cause she had accepted loans. Some people think 
that British gold can purchase anything, including 
a little country's soul. The War Office Staff was 
absorbed by the operations in France and Flanders, 
to the exclusion of all other theatres in a world-wide 
war. To the strategists of Whitehall the military 
participation of Rumania was just another " side- 
shGW," which they accepted with some reserves and 
treated as the lighter side of war; they were prepared 
to endorse any plan which did not involve the use of 
British soldiers, and left their own selves free to dupli- 
cate the work of Army Staffs and other exponents of 
" Grand Tactics " already on the Western front. 



THE DISASTEE IN EUMANIA 109 

Ignorance and indifference made these officers the 
echoes of Frenchmen who posed as experts; the 
protests of Englishmen who pointed out that the 
Rumanian Army was, figuratively, " in the air," were 
brushed aside as technical objections, which would 
have carried weight in the " main theatre," but were 
pretexts, in a " side-show," for inaction and delay. 
These military " Panglosses " Had chosen to forget 
their own shortsightedness and mismanagement at 
Gallipoli, the fate of Servia contained no lesson for 
them, they urged Rumania to do what they themselves 
would not have done, and stilled the voice of con- 
science with the hope that all would be for the best 
in the best of all possible alliances, if not at once 
at any rate in the end. What that end would be or 
when it would occur, the official mind could nofe 
foresee. It foresaw nothing except a chance of self- 
advancement, and that it promptly seized. 

In Petrograd there had never been great enthusiasm, 
in regard to Rumanian intervention. Russian military 
opinion, as expressed by the Grand Duke Nicholas in 
1915, had been opposed to an extension of the Eastern- 
front by the Rumanian Army, whose unpreparedness 
was well known to the Russian Staff. This reasoning 
had at the time been eminently sound, and the fact 
that in the intervening period Bulgaria had joined 
forces with the Central Powers only increased itss 
cogency. Another factor supervened : the men who 
ruled Russia at this period had not forgotten Plevna.* 
Great Powers dislike being under obligations to little 
neighbouring States, and are apt to fee bad debtors 
when it comes to paying debts. Though not over- 
burdened with scruples, the Russian Government 
realised that, on this occasion, a contract entered into 

* In the war of 1877 between Russia and Turkey, Rumania had come to 
the rescue of Russia when the Russian army was held up by the Turks 
under Osman Pasha at Plevna. 



110 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

with Eumania might have to be fulfilled. The Pan- 
Slavist elements in Petrograd objected to any aggran- 
disement of the southern neighbour, and thought 
Rumania's price too high; in their eyes, postponement 
of final victory was preferable to having, for the second 
time, so exacting a partner in success. Hitherto, 
Eussia had worked to keep Eumania out, while France 
and Great Britain tried to bring her in. 

The Eussian character is a strange amalgam; some 
of its moods are noble and poetic, others are fierce 
and ruthless as those of a wild beast. When the Allies 
had used persuasion with Eumania, Eussia had stood 
aside, but when a different note was sounded, when 
growing irritation and impatience decided t*he Govern- 
ment in Paris to force Eumania 's hand, a ready and 
willing instrument was found in the Government of 
the Czar. Here was a policy which gave full scope 
to strength and cunning; Great Britain and France 
might preach morality and justice, Eussia would act 
with violence and guile. 

From the beginning of June onwards, a veil of 
secrecy shrouded the negotiations of the Allies as to 
the plan of action in Eumania. The " High Con- 
tracting Parties" might well have quoted the hero* 
of a double murder when he said " Not easily have 
we three come to this." Though they were only 
planning murder, it was essential for that plan's 
success to protect it from all criticisms until it had 
done its work. 

Early in July the first overt move was made. It 
took the form of a message from Eussian General 
Headquarters, and was sent by General Alexieff, the 
Chief of Staff of all the Eussian armies, who, of course, 
acted in his Imperial master's name. The general 
tenor of this communication was to the effect that a 

* The husband of Francesca da Rimini, who killed his wife and her 
lover. 



THE DISASTER IN RUMANIA 111 

favourable opportunity had presented itself for 
Rumania's intervention, which, if not seized without 
delay, might pass irrevocably, since her assistance 
would no longer be required and she would not even 
be permitted to make a triumphal entry into Tran- 
sylvania; the concluding words were, "Now or 
never." A statement, a taunt, and a threat made up 
the Russian ultimatum, for it was nothing else, end, 
as was only fitting, it was communicated by the 
Russian Military Attache* to the Rumanian Chief of 
Staff and to the Prime Minister in his dual capacity 
of Minister for War. Within a few days, the British 
and French Military Attaches received instructions 
from their respective War Offices to endorse the com- 
munication made verbally by their Russian colleague. 
So far, apparently, the Allied Ministers in Bucharest 
had had no instructions in the matter, and two of 
them, at least, continued to " wait and see." 

After the first shock of disgust, Bratiano was in- 
clined to pay no attention to proceedings so irregular, 
as to suggest ignorance of international usages on the 
part of certain officers, although they were Chiefs of 
Staff. He may have been right about their ignorance, 
but the second move must have dispelled any doubts- 
as to their pertinacity and intentions. It emanated 
from Paris and from a distinguished military authority. 
General Joffre instructed the French Military 
Attache* to inform the Rumanian War Office that the 
Central Empires could not send more than ten 
divisions to operate against Rumania; five of these 
would be German and five Austro-Hungarian divisions. 
The latter were described as being of inferior class. 
No reference was made to Bulgarian or Turkish forces, 
an omission which justified the inference that those 
already on the southern frontier could not be 
reinforced. The British and Russian Attaches were 
instructed to confirm this estimate. The Italian had 



112 OLD EUEOPE'S SUICIDE 

standing orders from his War Office, under all and 
any circumstances, to agree with the other three. 

General Joffre was much respected in Kumania. 
His opinion on military matters could not fail to 
impress a civilian, and that opinion had been uttered 
in no uncertain voice. For the first time, Bratiano 
wavered. The Eumanian Army consisted of sixteen 
divisions, of which ten were fairly well equipped. If 
Jonre 's estimate of enemy forces was correct, the 
invasion of Transylvania could be undertaken with 
fair chances of success. Agents reported that Ger- 
many was weakening and that Austria-Hungary was 
verging on collapse ; there might be some truth in the 
Kussian General's statement, and perhaps " le moment 
opportun " had come. 

The Prime Minister was the son of a great Eumanian 
patriot and wished to follow in his father's steps; the 
father had united two Principalities in a kingdom, 
the son had set himself the task of extending that 
kingdom beyond the western mountains, and aspired 
to be the architect of the Greater Eumania of his 
father's prophetic dreams. Fear of not winning 
makes men gamble, and this anticipatory fear per- 
vaded Bratiano 's mind; he in whom courage went with 
pride now quailed before prospective self-reproach, 

Allied diplomacy was quick to perceive the effect 
of the first two moves; these had been, respectively, 
a threat and an assurance, the third was a promise: 
before Eumania intervened, General Sarr ail's* army 
would make an offensive on a scale large enough to 
prevent the dispatch of enemy reinforcements from 
the Salonika front to the Dobrudja or the Danube. 
The strength of the enemy forces in Northern Bul- 
garia was variously estimated, but the Eumanian 
General Staff was informed that their figures were 

*The French General commanding the Allied Forces at Salonika. 



THE DISASTEE IN EUMANIA 113 

exaggerated and an emphatic denial was given as to 
the presence of Turkish troops. The Allied Intelli- 
gence Service overlooked the fact that Eumania still 
had her representatives in Sofia, and among them at 
least one officer who had both eyes and ears. 

About this time the Bulgarian Government made 
overtures to the Eumanian Prime Minister in regard 
to a separate peace. How far these overtures were 
sincere it would be hard to say. Their purport was 
to use Eumania as an intermediary; their effect was 
to remove the last misgivings from Bratiano's mind. 
He attached no great importance to the Salonika 
offensive, except in so far as it might strengthen 
Bulgaria's desire for peace. 

By the end of July the negotiations for Eumanian 
intervention were far advanced. In these, Eussia 
played the leading part; proposals and counter- 
proposals passed continually between Eussian Head- 
quarters and the Eumanian War Office, while in 
Petrograd acquiescence was, at last, obtained for the 
full payment of Eumania 's price. On August 16 a 
Treaty and Military Convention were signed by 
Bratiano and the representatives of the four leading 
Allied States. The Treaty guaranteed to Eumania, 
in the event of the Allies being victorious, all the 
territory she claimed in Austria -Hungary, including 
the whole of the region called the Banat at the con- 
fluence of the Danube and the Theiss. In the Military 
Convention, the Allies promised, among other things : 

An offensive on the Salonika front, to begin ten days 
before Eumania 's first act of war; 

A Eussian offensive in the Carpathians during 
Eumania 's mobilisation; 

The dispatch of Eussian forces to the Dobruja, con- 
sisting of two infantry divisions and one cavalry 
division ; 



114 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

Supplies of ammunition delivered in Eumania at 
the rate of 300 tons per day. 

Rumania, on her side, undertook to declare war 
against and attack Austria- Hungary with all her land 
and sea forces, at latest, ten days after the commence- 
ment of the Allied offensive on the Salonika front. 
The declaration of war was to be made on the first 
day of mobilisation, when it was agreed the Eumanian 
frontier troops would attack the Austro-Hungarian 
positions in the Carpathian passes. The only reference 
to any enemy State other than Austria-Hungary 
concerned Bulgaria; it was indirect, since it applied 
to the Russian forces to be sent to the Dobruja, and 
laid down that these would co-operate with the 
Rumanians against the Bulgars, although the Treaty 
of Alliance did not, as regards the latter people, 
envisage a state of war. In this connection there had 
been a difference of opinion between the French and 
Russians; the former still hankered after an invasion 
of Bulgaria, the latter insisted that Rumania's mam 
effort should be made in Transylvania. The Russian 
point of view had prevailed, owing to the fact that the 
Rumanian General Staff refused to undertake any 
operations against Bulgaria without reinforcements of 
at least 150,000 Russian troops. General Alexieff 
declared he could not spare this number, and was 
reluctant to spare even three divisions for the pro- 
tection of Rumania beyond a certain line. That line, 
as events soon proved, was not in the Southern 
Carpathians nor on the Danube; it was the shortest 
line between his own left flank and the coast of the 
Black Sea. 

During the night of August 27-28, the first act of 
war took place; Rumanian troops stormed and cap- 
tured the enemy position in the Carpathians along 
the whole length of frontier, and on the following day 
war was declared formally against Austria-Hungary. 



THE DISASTEE IN EUMANIA 115 

The news was flashed throughout the world and was 
considered a triumph for the Allies. The wildest 
stories circulated; the Rumanian Army was described 
as well-equipped and numerous, a host unwearied by 
the strain of war and capable of marching through 
the mountains as far as Budapest. In Paris, joy 
bordered on hysteria, self-satisfaction knew no limits, 
and the men who had planned this master-stroke were 
the heroes of the hour. London and Petrograd were 
less excited; official appetites were whetted but not 
yet satisfied; in the former, Rumanian intervention 
was still regarded as a " side-show "; in the latter, 
some schemers saw the curtain rising on a new drama 
in the East. The mass of people in the Allied States 
knew nothing about the situation, but, like the 
" Tommies " in the trenches, they cheered the long- 
awaited tidings that Rumania had come in. 

Germany at once made common cause with Austria- 
Hungary. The German Minister* in Bucharest left 
the Rumanian capital, under escort, disgruntled if 
not surprised. Events had moved too quickly for this 
diplomat. The inevitable had happened. He had all 
along foreseen it; his annoyance was due to the fact 
that it had come too soon. He left behind him tell- 
tale proofs of the baseness to which his country could 
descend in order to win a war; if his departure had 
not been so hurried, the means for poisoning a city's 
water would either have been taken with him or put 
to fearful use. As the train in which he travelled 
was crossing the River Serettrf he said to the officer 
of the escort, " Here is the future frontier between 
Austria-Hungary and Russia." He may have been 
merely speculating, as any cynic might, or, on the 
other hand, he may have had an inkling of Russia's 

* Baron von der Biische ; he became later Under-Secretary of State 
in the Foreign Office at Berlin. 

t The River Sereth divides Wallachia from Moldavia. 



116 OLD EUEOPE'S SUICIDE 

secret plans. This river marked the shortest line 
between the Eussian left in the Carpathians and the 
coast of the Black Sea. North of it lay Moldavia, a 
pastoral land and poor; south of it lay Wallachia, 
teeming with corn and oil. Rumania was a pygmy 
State and had entered on a war of giants ; to both her 
greater neighbours it would not be displeasing if she 
were broken on the wheel. In Petrograd, it was 
rumoured that certain members of the Government 
were inclined for a separate peace, and it was common 
knowledge that the Central Empires stood in des- 
perate need of Wallachia 's resources. To an intelli- 
gent German diplomat, these were the elements of a 
deal. 

The details of the campaign in Rumania will form 
the subject of a detailed history and, in so far as the 
conduct of the Rumanian peasants was concerned, will 
furnish a record of heroism and endurance unsurpassed 
in any theatre of war. From the very outset the 
Rumanian General Staff was confronted with the 
impossible task of undertaking simultaneously an 
offensive in a mountainous country and holding two 
lengthy frontiers converging in a narrow salient. In 
most essential respects the Allies broke their promises, 
as set forth in the Convention they had signed. Ten 
days after the first invasion of Transylvania, General 
Sarrail announced that the preparations for his offen- 
sive were " pursuing their normal course," an offensive 
which should have started some twenty days before. 
The Russians remained inactive in the Carpathians 
and, so far from anticipating the forward movement 
of the Rumanian Army, failed to co-operate when it 
had been made. The supplies of ammunition, so 
confidently promised, arrived in driblets; the average 
quantity received was 80 tons per day. 

To the surprise of both Bratiano and the Govern- 
ment in Petrograd, Bulgaria acted with her Allies. 



THE DISASTER IN RUMANIA 117 

Up to the last moment the Prime Minister had believed 
in the sincerity of the peace overtures, and most 
Russian officers were convinced that their mere 
presence in the Dobruja would have a pacifying effect. 
In the event, Bulgarian forces attacked (without a 
declaration of war) the Rumanian bridgeheads on the 
south bank of the Danube and invaded the Dobruja, 
where they were reinforced by Turks. A situation 
had arisen which had not been foreseen in the Military 
Convention. The southern frontier was now seriously 
threatened, and the Russian detachment was not 
strong enough, in co-operation with six weak Rumanian 
divisions, to hold it throughout its length. 

General Joffre's estimate of the enemy forces which 
could be brought against Rumania, so far from being 
approximately exact, was eventually exceeded more 
than threefold. Fresh troops were continually 
launched against the wearied Rumanian soldiers, who, 
from sheer fatigue, at last became demoralised. 
Retreats followed, in quick succession, on the first 
brilliant advance in Transylvania : the Rumanians were 
forced to abandon all their conquests, since, at every 
point of contact, they were outnumbered and out- 
gunned. Paris and London were not sparing in 
advice, but of that Rumania had no need. She needed 
guns and men; Russia alone eould give them and, for 
the moment, Russia would not give. A storm of 
criticism now arose. The men who had forced 
Rumania's hand perceived that disaster was impend- 
ing, they sought an explanation for it, and blamed 
the Rumanian troops. 

War, it is claimed, discovers many virtues. It does 
not create them but it does provide an opportunity for 
their exploitation by men who do not fight on battle- 
fields. To these latter, war is Jack Horner's pie ; they 
pull out all /the plums complacently, and sit in safe 
but not secluded corners, clinging like limpets to 



118 OLD EUEOPE'S SUICIDE 

official rank. They mask with mystery their 
mediocrity and take the line of least resistance. Suc- 
cess in life has taught them that responsibility, 
especially when moral, is one of the things to shirk. 
They never are to blame when failure issues from their 
plans; that is the fault of other men, who are simple 
enough to fight. 

While such men retain their present influence, the 
peoples must prepare for war. No League of Nations 
will control them; they will control the League. 

On November 24, a detachment of German troops 
crossed the Danube 56 miles south-west of Bucharest, 
under cover of a thick fog. The end had come. 
Bucharest was doomed; enemy forces were converg- 
ing on the capital from three directions; they were 
already in possession of the rich corn lands of 
Wallachia, and were threatening the oilfields both from 
the north and west. The Eumanian General Staff 
made a las;t appeal for Eussian reinforcements and 
some were sent, but their movements were so slow 
and their co-operation so half-hearted, that even 
Eussian representatives at Eumanian Headquarters 
joined in indignant protests. 

As early as September, General AlexieS had advised 
a retirement to the Sereth, although he must have 
realised that such an operation involved abandoning, 
without a struggle, the two main objectives of the 
Central Empires, viz., the resources of Wallachia and 
access to the Danube ports between Galatz and the 
Iron Gate. If this man was honest, he was incom- 
petent; no other explanation can be given of such fatal 
obstinacy and pride. His advice had not been taken, 
so he left Wallachia unsupported and flooded Moldavia 
with Eussian Army Corps. These troops lived on the 
country-side like locusts and drained it of supplies, 
but they did not make the offensive so long promised, 
that was indefinitely postponed. 



THE DISASTER IN RUMANIA 11$ 

Despondency and alarm pervaded Bucharest. The 
civilian elements did not fear the Germans, but they 
dreaded the Turks and Bulgars, whose atrocities in 
the Dcbruja had appalled the stoutest hearts. The 
seat of Government had been transferred to Jassy, a 
few officials had remained, but their loyalty was mere 
than doubtful to what appeared a losing cause. The 
population of the city was like a flock of sheep without 
its shepherd and wandered aimlessly about, seeking 
for information and encouragement which no honest 
man could give. Orders had been posted broadcast, 
instructing the inhabitants to stay quietly in their 
homes. So far, the poorer people had obeyed and 
watched, with patient if puzzled resignation, the 
departure of the rich and privileged in motor cars and 
trains. South of the town a battle was in progress, 
and bulletins from Presan* spoke of a great success : 
the simple were hoping for a victory, which would save 
their hearths and homes. 

Throughout the war, a flag had waved over the Royal 
Palace, and, though the King and Queen had left, 
during these first days of Rumania's agony, it had 
remained unfurled, for the palace was a hospital and 
under Royal care. To anxious watchers in the street, 
this flag was a comfort and a sign : it proved the 
presence of some occupants, who, if danger threatened, 
would surely be removed. One morning, early in 
December, the people walking past the palace saw 
that the flag had gone. 

The army in the south had been defeated and was 
in full retreat. Hundreds of wounded men and 
stragglers confirmed the rumours of disaster; they 

* Presan was one of Roumania's ablest generals ; he had commanded 
the Northern Army at the commencement of hostilities, and was entrusted 
with the direction of the operations for the defence of Bucharest. After 
the retreat into Moldavia he became Chief of Staff to the King. 



120 OLD EUEOPE'S SUICIDE 

were its human symbols, their broken and dejected 
mien banished all optimistic doubts. 

An exodus ensued; an exodus as unpremeditated as 
it was unreasoning. The fugitives did not consider 
why they fled, nor whither they would go: they were 
unnerved by months of sjtrain and almost daily bomb- 
ing: an uncontrollable impulse forced them to leave 
the stricken town. A motley crowd, on foot and horse- 
back, in every sort of vehicle, in every stage of misery 
and despair, streamed past the lime trees of the 
Chaussee Kisileff and surged up the Great North Road. 

The season was far advanced. Out of the north-east 
came an eager wind and snow began to fall, large 
flakes fell softly but persistently from a surcharged, 
leaden sky and lay upon the country-side like a wide- 
spreading shroud; a shroud for many little children, 
their innocence had not availed to save them ; cunning 
and selfishness are better safeguards than youth and 
innocence in time of war. 

I caught up what might be called the rearguard of 
this lamentable procession two miles to the south of 
a little Wallachian town, which lay close to the fron- 
tier of Moldavia and General Alexieff's shortest line. 
Motor cars, country carts and wagons stood four 
abreast across the road, in a long column stretching 
northwards, whose immobility impeded further pro- 
gress, however slow; the gathering darkness and 
exhaustion had set a period to this tragic flight. 

On foot, I reached the Headquarters of Count Keller, 
the commander of a Russian Cavalry Corps; the 
General had just finished dinner when I entered, and, 
perhaps for this reason, his outlook on the situation 
was less gloomy than otherwise it might have been. 
Count Keller was not devoid of human feeling, the 
welter of suffering outside his lodging would have 



THE DISASTEE IN EUMANIA 121 

touched a heart of stone; but, as a soldier, he was 
filled with indignation against the Eumanian Govern- 
ment, for having permitted thousands of civilians to 
use the only highway in this region, and thereby, to 
block, for two whole days, the forward movement of 
his corps. The obvious retort was that his presence 
there was useless: he had arrived two months too late. 

On the following day, the refugees from Wallachia 
crossed the Sereth into Moldavia, and found security 
behind a screen composed of Eussian troops. About 
half a million Eussian soldiers had arrived in the 
Northern Principality and more were yet to come. 
Wild, uncouth Cossacks swarmed in every village, their 
first thoughts plunder and the satisfaction of gross 
appetites; some tried to sell their splendid horses for 
alcohol in any form. 

The first act of the Eumanian tragedy was drawing 
to its close. A little Latin country had yielded to 
bribes and threats iand had entered, under Eussian 
auspices, into a European war. Now it lay crushed 
and broken, the victim of two invasions : one, by the 
enemy in the south ; the other, by Eussians in the 
north* 

The Western Powers were lavish in their sympathy ; 
they had little else to give and were the helpless wit- 
nesses of the evil they had done. In France, a rest- 
less, ignorant optimism had conceived a selfish plan; 
Great Britain had endorsed it, and Eussia, in the name 
of Allied interests, had pursued a traditional Eussian 
policy, wh^ch had been both sinister and obscure. 

" He that builds a fair house upon an ill seat, com- 
mitteth himself to prison." In 1912, the Great 
Powers, of those days, had laid the foundations of 
their policy in (the Balkans. Ignorance, inertia, 
selfishness and greed had characterised their State- 



122 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

craft : an ill seat this on which to build, but one well 
fitted for a pyramid of errors. That pyramid was 
rising fast and one more block had just been added, 
an error as tragic as (the rest. Though no fair house, 
it was to hold its master builders like a prison; for 
some among them, it was destined to fulfil its proper 
function — the function of a tomb. 



CHAPTEE XII. 

1917. 

The Eussian Eevolutxon and the Rus so-Rumanian 

Offensive. 

By the middle of January, 1917, the front in Rumania 
had become stabilised on what was, in point of fact, 
General Alexieff's shortest line. This line had its 
right near Dorna Vatra* (the Eussian left before 
Rumania intervened) and traversed the Carpathian 
foothills until it reached the Sereth Valley, north-east 
of the town of Focsani; thence it followed the left 
bank of the river to its junction with the Danube 
close to Galatz. East of this latter place the front 
was vague and variable, the swampy region round 
the Danube's mouths being a veritable " No Man's 
Land." 

Nearly a million Eussian soldiers had, by this time, 
been sent into Moldavia ; they were organised in 
thirteen cavalry divisions and a dozen army corps. 
The Eumanian Army had been reduced by losses and 
disorganisation to six weak divisions; these held a 
sector of the front about twenty miles in length. 

Winter weather and mutual exhaustion precluded 
the immediate continuation of hostilities, and the 
opposing armies faced each other under conditions of 
discomfort which could hardly have been worse. 

During this period of comparative calm, it was 
possible to appreciate the situation both from an Allied 
and an enemy point of view. 

* Dorna Vatra is a town in the Carpathians on the S.W. frontier of 
Bukovina. 

123 



124 OLD EUEOPE'S SUICIDE 

The Allies had, undoubtedly, lost prestige. Great 
Britain had forfeited the confidence which had been 
our most precious asset in the earlier stages of the 
war; the British Government was regarded by 
Eumanians as the tool of French and Eussian dip- 
lomacy, and our warmest partisans found little 
comfort in benevolent intentions which were never 
translated into deeds. The French burked criticism, 
to some extent, by an immense display of energy. 
Hundreds of officers and men were incorporated in 
the Eumanian Army, who by their spirit and example 
did much to raise the morale of the troops. The 
Eussians, to a greater degree than ever, inspired dis- 
trust and fear. The Germanophiles in Eumania had 
always been Eussophobes; during this period they 
gained many new adherents, both in the army and the 
business class. 

Allied prestige, and more especially that of Great 
Britain, could have been restored by a decisive success 
in a direction which would have enabled Eumania to 
recommence hostilities, in the spring or summer, 
independently of Eussia. That direction was ob- 
viously Constantinople, the key of the Near East; no 
ether remedy for Eumania *s plight was either prac- 
ticable or just. 

The loss of Wallachia had deprived Eumania of 
four-fifths of her food supplies, almost all her petrol 
and her principal railway centres. Moldavia had to 
support, in addition to the normal population, 
thousands of refugees from Wallachia and, to a great 
extent, the Eussian forces. So defective were the 
road and railway communications, that the supply 
services functioned only with the greatest difficulty 
while the troops remained at rest. To attempt to even 
utilise this region as an advanced base for offensive 
operations was to invite defeat. Operations on a large 
scale for the recovery of Wallachia could only have 



RUSSIAN BE VOLUTION 125 

been carried out by using the Danube as a supplemen- 
tary line of communications ; to do so, it was essential 
for the Allies to be undisputed masters of the Black 
Sea, and this involved a reinforcement of the Russian 
Fleet. While the Dardanelles remained in enemy 
hands, the Black Sea was as much German and 
Turkish as it was Russian; naval engagements were 
of rare occurrence and invariably indecisive. 

Speculation was busy at Rumanian Headquarters 
as to the invaders' future course of action. If further 
conquests were envisaged, their position on the Danube 
conferred on them the power of turning the left flank 
of the Sereth line by the occupation of Galatz, against 
which place their communications by rail and river 
would have made possible the rapid concentration of 
numerically superior forces. Once in possession of 
Galatz, the invasion of Bessarabia could have been 
undertaken, since the establishment of an Allied front 
on the line of the River Pruth* would have been fore- 
stalled. 

The Central Empires, however, made no serious 
effort to capture Galatz ; they appeared to be content 
with Braila and complete control of the Danube 
Valley between that port and the Iron Gate. From 
a strategical point of view their position was good. 
An immense force of Russians was immobilised in 
Moldavia and held there by the threat to Odessa; this 
force could only be freed for offensive operations by 
a complete reversal of Allied policy in the Near East, 
a contingency not likely to occur. In the meantime, 
the stocks of corn in Wallachia were being transferred 
to Germany and restorative measures were being 
taken in the oil fields, where the machinery and plant 
had been destroyed in wholesale fashion during the 
retreat. 

* The River Pruth defines part of the frontier between Rumania and 
Bessarabia and enters the Danube at Galatz. 



126 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

Famine was approaching in Moldavia, and typhus 
was raging in the towns and countryside, when the 
Allies convened a conference at Petrograd to determine 
their future plans 

General Gourko had replaced General Alexieff as 
Chief of the Russian Staff, owing to the illness of the 
latter. At the outset of the Conference, Russia's 
principal military delegate submitted an appreciation 
of the military situation which, in so far as it con- 
cerned Rumania, either displayed an inexcusable 
ignorance of the facts or was intentionally false. He 
described new railway lines in Bessarabia, as approach- 
ing completion, whose construction could not be com- 
menced before the spring was far enough advanced 
to melt the ice and snow; on such premises as these 
he based a plan of operations, which even Russian 
Generals on the spot described as suicide. The other 
Allied representatives listened with grateful ears; for 
them, a Russo-Rumanian offensive in the spring had 
many great advantages — it would relieve the pressure 
on the Western front and help Cadorna on the Carso 
If the General Staff in Petrograd thought this offen- 
sive could be made, it was the best solution of the 
problem, and all that remained for them to do was 
to arrange for liberal supplies of war material and 
guns. 

It is difficult to believe that the Government of the 
Czar, had it survived, would have permitted this 
offensive to take place; a few ambitious Generals may 
have been in favour of it, but the rulers of Russia had 
realised that autocracies, which made war on the 
Central Empires, were undermining the last barrier 
against the advancing flood of democratic sentiment, 
and were, in fact, cutting, their own throats. Both at 
the Imperial Court and in Government circles, German 
influence was gaining ground, and the Russian people 
as a whole were profoundly pessimistic. Germany 



BUSSIAN KEVOLUTION 127 

was considered irresistible, officers of high rank 
admitted that if Mackensen invaded Bessarabia, salva- 
tion could be found only in retreat. They talked of a 
retirement to the Volga even, and the Eumanians 
listened with dismay. 

In all human probability, the proposals for an offen- 
sive made to the Conference at Petrograd were 
intended to deceive the Western Allies, arid 
to gain time for the final liquidation of 
Eumania. Already the Eussian Government con- 
trolled Eumania's supplies of ammunition,* and, by an 
adroit interpretation of Articles VIII. and IX. f of the 
Military Convention, the Eumanian Army had, for all 
practical purposes, been brought under the Eussian 
High Command. The next step was to assume control 
of the Eumanian civil administration, on the pretext 
that the confusion and congestion on the Moldavian 
railway system would preclude offensive operations, 
the Eussian General Staff suggested a wholesale 
evacuation of Eumanian elements from Moldavia into 
Eussian territory. This evacuation was to include 
the Government, the civil population, and all military 
units not actually on the front. Apart from its total 
impracticability with the communications available, 
the object of this suggestion was sufficiently clear — it 
was the conversion of Moldavia into a Eussian colony. 
When that had been accomplished, a separate peace 
could be concluded between Eussia and the Central 
Empires, and the prophecy of Baron von der Buschet 
would have been amply verified. 

» About 60 per cent, of the supplies of ammunition sent by the Western 
Powers to Roumania were lost or stolen in transit through Russia. 

t These Articles prescribed the position of the King of Rumania as 
Commander-in-Chief of all forces in Roumanian territory. After the 
retreat into Moldavia, advantage was taken of the somewhat inexplicit 
character of these Articles and the preponderance of Russian troops to 
place King Ferdinand under the orders of the Czar. 

t The former German Minister to Bucharest. 



128 OLD EUEOPE'S SUICIDE 

During the proceedings of the Conference there had 
been much talk of revolution, but few of the Allied 
representatives believed in it. Society in Petrograd 
scoffed at the idea of a political upheaval, it was held 
to be impossible while the lower classes were so pros- 
perous and comparatively well fed. At the end of 
February the Conference broke up, the British, 
French and Italian delegates left by the Murmansk 
route, convinced that, at last, the Eussian " steam 
roller " was going to advance. 

A few days later the Ee volution began. The 
soldiers joined the people. Their motives for so 
doing were natural and logical, they should have been 
a lesson to those who were next to try to rule in 
Eussia, if vanity and false ideas had not conspired to 
make Kerensky the puppet of occidental plans. Many 
senior generals supported the Eevolution. Their 
motives were variously ascribed to patriotism and am- 
bition — when generals and soldiers act alike a distinc- 
tion must be drawn. 

Western democracies gave an enthusiastic reception 
to the new order in Eussia — so much so that our 
Ambassador in Petrograd, of all men the most innocent 
and above suspicion, was accused of complicity in the 
revolutionary plot. Liberals spoke of the awakening 
of Eussia, and they were absolutely right. It was, 
indeed, an awakening of oppressed, exploited people, 
and was thorough, abrupt and rude. Officials in Paris 
and London were not without misgivings, but they 
perceived some advantages in the situation — a central 
soviet at Petrograd, or even a Eepublic, ruled by 
idealists, would be a more docile instrument than the 
Government of the Czar. Superficially, they were 
right. This shortsighted view was justified by events 
during the first four months of confusion and excite- 
ment. Fundamentally, they were wrong. They had 
misjudged the Eevolution, and had not recognised that 



KUSSIAN REVOLUTION 129 

lassitude and exasperation pervaded the Eussian 
armies, and that men in this frame of mind were better 
left alone. 

The fate of Eumania had trembled in the balance 
when left to the tender mercies of the men who ruled 
in Eussia under the old regime. The Ee volution had 
brought a chance of respite, and admitted a ray of 
hope. Great Britain and France could have helped 
the Eumanian people, by using their influence to insist 
on strict adherence to the terms of the Military Con- 
vention. If this had been done, and if patience and 
foresight had been exercised, the natural desire of the 
Army and the Government, to take an active part in 
the reconquest of their territory, might have been 
gratified on sane strategic lines. The Eumanian Army 
might have been reorganised and re-equipped, and 
then could have played a useful part in a concerted 
Allied plan. 

This was not to be. The Allied plan was fixed and 
immutable. Though everything had changed in 
Eussia, this plan was the direct outcome of Gourko's 
fantasies : it consisted in a gigantic offensive opera- 
tion, without adequate communications and with ill- 
equipped armies, on more than one hundred miles of 
front. The Eumanian forces were to be wedged 
between two Eussian armies and thus deprived of the 
power of independent movement, while their role was 
limited to that of an insignificant fraction of an 
incoherent mass. Ignorance and optimism ruled the 
Allied Councils ; they were to be as fatal to Eumanian 
interests as Eussian guile and greed. 

I returned to Jassy from Petrograd towards the 
middle of March, The Eussian forces in Moldavia 
had caught the revolutionary infection; their Com- 
mander-in-Chief, a Eussian prince, had found prudence 
to be the better part of valour and assisted at com- 
mittee meetings wearing a red cockade. Revolution 

F 



130 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

softens the manners and customs of even the most 
violent natures. Officers, who a few months before 
had kicked their soldiers in the streets for not saluting, 
now. when they got a rare salute, returned it with 
gratitude. 

The Eumanian peasants remained faithful to their 
King and Government. They had suffered much, but 
their pride of race and native sense prevented them 
from nattering the hated intruders by imitating 
Eussian methods for the redress of wrongs. In Jassy, 
some Socialists who had been arrested were liberated 
by their friends: these may have included some 
Rumanians, but their number was not considerable and 
their activities were not a source of danger to the 
commonwealth, which was threatened only from 
outside. 

On the front an extraordinary situation had arisen. 
Fraternisation between the opposing armies was 
general and unrestrained, except on the Rumanian 
sector. The Russian soldiers were in regular cor 
respondence with their Austrian and German adver- 
saries, by means of post-boxes placed between the lines 
and verbal intercourse. Men, whose respective 
Governments were still at war, fished in the waters of 
the Sereth. "Angling is somewhat like poetry, men 
are to be born so " No doubt these anglers thought, 
with Isaac Walton, that they were brothers of the 
angle. Barbed wire was put to peaceful uses, 
entanglements were used as drying lines and were 
covered with fluttering shirts. The revolution had 
accomplished something; it had given some very dirty 
soldiers the time to wash their clothes. 

A unique opportunity for propaganda had presented 
itself. The Germans utilised it to circulate letters 
inviting the Russian and Rumanian soldiers to desert 
their " real enemies " — France and England. These 
appeals had no effect. The Russians received them 



EUSSIAN DEVOLUTION 131 

philosophically; they had, already, got a sort of peace 
and, in the front-line trenches, a sufficiency of food. 
The Eumanians had other reasons for rejecting such 
advice. Peace with invaders had no meaning for 
them, their only friends were France and England. 
The peasants realised instinctively that Eussia was a 
foe. 

In their impatience for offensive action, the Allies 
failed to grasp some essential features of the situation, 
which might have been turned to good account. The 
Eussian armies were in a state of convalescence after 
the first fever of the revolution, the majority of the 
men were inerjfc, if not contented, and no longer 
indulged in deeds of violence ; they were still influenced 
by the revolutionary spirit, but not in a rabid sense. 
They were a source of contagion to the enemy but, 
relatively, harmless to themselves. Fraternisation on 
the Rumanian front was more hurtful to the Central 
Empires than to the Allies. The Austro-Hungarians 
were war- weary and demoralised; inactivity had 
encouraged hopes of peace and, after close on three 
years of war, such hopes die hard. Even the Germans 
were disaffected, their iron discipline had grown more 
lax. During one of my visits to the Eussian trenches, 
a German private brought a message from his com- 
rades, advising the " Soldiers' Committee " to cease 
passing convoys along a certain road, because " our 
pigs of officers may make us shoot." 

Disintegrating forces were at work among the enemy 
troops; they were the product of social and political 
conditions and, whatever might be their later reper- 
cussion, from an immediate and practical point of 
view, they were more powerful aids to victory for the 
Allies than any offensive on this front. A premature 
Eusso-Eumanian offensive, with unwilling Eussian 
soldiers, could have but one effect — its futility was 
evident to the humblest combatants in the opposing 



132 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

ranks; it could only serve to rally doubters and, there- 
by, postpone another revolution. That revolution was 
inevitable : it might have been precipitated by an 
intelligent adaptation of Allied policy to facts. 

So far as could be seen, the Allies had no policy at 
this period. Statesmen no longer ruled. The German 
system had been followed by making the General Staffs 
omnipotent. To men obsessed by one single facet of 
a many-sided problem, the Eussian Ee volution was an 
incident without significance beyond its bearing on the 
Western Front; for them the Eussian armies were 
machines, whose functions had undergone no change 
as the result of revolution. They regarded an offensive 
on the Eastern Front as a subsidiary operation, which 
would relieve (the pressure in the West : that was the 
aim and object of their strategy, and everything was 
subordinated to the achievement of that end. 

With very few exceptions, the Eussian Generals 
who had retained commands, after the abdication of 
the Czar, favoured the Allied plan; it appealed not 
only to their personal ambition but also to a convic- 
tion, which they shared with many others, that further 
slaughter would allay political unrest. The most 
influential member of the new Eussian Government 
was Kerensky, an idealist whose support for any enter- 
prise could be secured by flattering his vanity, which, 
as with many democratic leaders, had assumed the 
proportions of disease. The motives of this man were 
comparatively disinterested, but he was young and 
inexperienced. He became the most ardent advocate 
of the offensive plan and turned himself into a recruit- 
ing sergeant instead of directing the affairs of State. 
Brains and calm judgment are seldom used in war. 
It is much easier to enrol thousands of simple men to 
serve in what the Eussians called " Battalions of 
Death '"' than it is to find one man possessed of sense. 
Kerensky raised many such battalions and, to do him 



BUSSIAN BEVOLUTION 133 

justice, he did mot deceive the victims of his eloquence 
more completely than himself. 

In Bumania hope alternated with despair in regard 
to future operations; the former was spasmodic and 
inspired by the French Military Mission, the latter was 
bound to invade any reflective mind. Certain 
Bumanian Generals were frankly optimistic in regard 
to the reconquest of Wallachia, others professed to be 
so to gain the approval of the French. With either of 
[these two types discussion was impossible; it would 
have been cruel to rob them of any source of consola- 
tion by insisting on the truth. 

General Bagosa, who commanded the 2nd Bussian 
Army, expressed himself emphatically against a 
renewal of offensive tactics by Bussian troops, before 
they had been equipped on the same scale as cither 
armies. He declared that Brusiloffs much advertised 
offensives had been conducted without due preparation 
or regard for loss of life, and that though that general 
had gained much personal glory, he had broken the 
spirit of his men. The attitude of the rank and file 
more than confirmed this view; the revolutionary 
soldiers lacked neither patriotism nor courage, but they 
had come to suspect and hate the blundering, ruthless 
generals who held their lives so cheap. They knew that 
on the Western Front slaughter was mitigated by 
mechanical devices, whereas they were regarded as 
mere cannon fodder and of less value than their 
transport mules. When French and British officers 
urged them to make further sacrifices, they put a 
searching question: "Do your soldiers pull down 
barbed wire entanglements with their bare hands? 
Such questions were disconcerting to fervent foreign 
propagandists, and did not stimulate their curiosity to 
hear other unpleasant truths. In spite of the fact that 
" Soldiers' Committees" had been established m 
almost every unit, and were largely, though not 



134 OLD EUEOPE'S SUICIDE 

completely, representative, these spokesmen of a mass 
of inarticulate opinion were neglected by the partisans 
of immediate offensive action, who seemed to have 
forgotten that the Eussian Ee volution had ever taken 
place 

Once again, the Western Powers were asking the 
armies on the Eastern Front to do what their own 
armies would not have been allowed to do. Their 
motives were selfish and their propaganda false : when 
ignorance is wilful it becomes immoral, when combined 
with mediocrity of mind, it fails to recognise the natural 
limitations of a situation and has a boomerang effect. 
Wise men, however immoral they may be, know where 
to stop ; the stupid, when unrestrained by fear or 
scruples, push blindly on and never seek enlighten- 
ment, they cause more suffering by their folly than the 
most cruel tyrants by their vice. 

At the beginning of July the offensive began; by 
some it was called the " French " offensive, and the 
name was not inapt. It came as a surprise to the 
enemy Army Commanders, who had not expected this 
solution O'f a problem whose political aspects were 
causing them grave concern. The Austro-Hungarian 
and German soldiers could still be counted on to 
retaliate if attacked ; this sudden onslaught put an end 
to the fraternisation between the armies and could be 
dealt with easily by even an inferior number of well- 
led and well-organised troops. 

The history of these ill-fated operations is too well 
known to need recapitulation. By the end of July the 
Eusso-Eumanian offensive had collapsed completely. 
The Eussian forces were everywhere in retreat, the 
Eumanians, after making a twelve mile advance and 
fighting with great gallantry and determination, were 
forced to withdraw to the line from which they had 
started, owing to the retirement of the Eussian armies 
on both their flanks. 



BUSSIAN BEVOLUTION 135 

A total misconception of the internal situation in 
Russia had brought about a military disaster of 
unprecedented magnitude. The Russian armies had 
ceased to exist as fighting forces, the soldiers had 
flung away their arms and offered no opposition to 
invasion, all Western Russia was at the mercy of the 
Germans, who had only to advance. 

With the disappearance of all military cohesion, the 
political situation in Russia became desperate. The 
dumb driven herd had, in the end, stampeded and put 
the herdsmen in a fearful quandary, from which there 
was no escape. Millions of men had demobilised 
themselves and roved about the country or poured into 
the towns, they had been brutalised by three years 
of war and showed it by their deeds. Six months 
before the Russian people had lost confidence in them- 
selves. With a new form of Government new hope 
had come, but now that hope was dashed. Russian 
Democracy had been tried and failed. Kerensky and 
his fellows had destroyed an evil system, but had put 
nothing but rhetoric in its place. They had convinced 
themselves that they were Russia's saviours, and had 
not realised that revolutions which are caused by war 
have but one object — a return to peace. They might 
have saved the situation by a temporising policy; far 
greater men have not disdained inaction based on 
calculation, and Russia's history had shown that in her 
wide and distant spaces lay her most sure defence. 
Instead, the leaders of the Revolution, having no 
Russian policy, had embarked on an enterprise which 
every thinking Russian knew was foredoomed to 
failure ; thereby they had destroyed the trust of the 
people in their Western Allies, who had become objects 
of resentment, for having urged the last offensive with- 
out regard for ways and means. 

To distracted soldiers, workmen and peasants in all 
parts of Russia, the Bolshevist doctrine made a strong 



136 OLD EUEOPE'S SUICIDE 

appeal; it promised not only peace, but a form of 
self-government, and these leaderless, misgoverned 
men snatched eagerly at the prospect. Lenin and 
Trotsky had long perceived the real need of the Eussian 
people, their international theories effaced any senti- 
ments of loyalty to the Allies, and, after sweeping 
away the last vestiges of Kerensky's Government, they 
asked Germany for an armistice. 

In Southern Moldavia, the Eumanians still held 
their ground, covering the crossings of the Sereth. 
They were completely isolated — on one side anarchy, 
on the other a ring of steel. The situation of this 
dismembered country was tragic and appalling; in the 
words of the Prophet Isaiah, Eumania was " as the 
small dust of the balance." Her fate was linked with 
that of Eussia, she was small dust indeed, compared 
to that ponderous mass. 

The impatience of the Western Powers had exposed 
Eumania to the machinations of a haughty, over- 
bearing ally and an enemy in disguise. From these the 
Eevolution had delivered her, but only in the hour of 
defeat and on the eve of irretrievable disaster. She was 
to drain the cup of bitterness down to its very dregs, 
and, at the bidding of the Bolshevists, to conclude a 
separate peace. 

It has been said that jthe Bolshevists betrayed 
Eumania. This accusation is unfounded and unjust. 
The Bolshevists were the outcome of a pernicious 
system, for which the Eevolution had found no remedy ; 
Eumania had undoubtedly been betrayed, but the 
betrayal was not Lenin's work. When he assumed 
control in Eussia, Eumania's plight was hopeless, and, 
at least, he left her what she might have lost — the 
status of an Independent State. 

The Alliance had lost a limb which spread across two 
Continents and bestrode the Eastern world. Its 
strength had been exaggerated, but it had rendered 



RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 137 

priceless services afb the outset of the war. At last it 
had broken down from overwork, directed by men who 
had neither understood its functions nor realised jthat 
it was something human, though different from the 
rest. The Russian people had not changed with a 
change of Government, but the same men were abused 
as traitors under Lenin, who had been praised as 
patriots and heroes when subjects of the Czar. 

The amputation had been self-inflicted, and the limb' 
was left to rot. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

A Midnight Mass. 

On Easter Eve, it is the practice of the Orthodox Greek 
Church to hold a Special Vigil, which terminates at 
midnight on Holy Saturday. In the year 1917 this 
vigil had unusual significance for the Rumanian 
people, who were passing through a time of tribulation, 
the words " Kyrie Eleison "* were in every heart, and 
even the irreligious sought the solace of Mother 
Church. 

I had been with the Armies, and had returned to 
Jassy late on Easter Saturday. My way had lain 
through almost deserted country, with here and there 
a sparsely populated village, whose tolling church bells 
called the peasants to their prayers. 

The Moldavian capital was densely crowded. Since 
early in the evening, a great concourse had been 
assembling in the Cathedral Square. At the time 
of my arrival, thousands of patient waiting people stood 
there, a sea of faces blanched in the moonlight, 
pinched by want and cold. Many Russian soldiers 
were sharing in this outer vigil. Just before mid- 
night, after the King and Queen had entered the 
Cathedral, some of them broke through the cordon of 
Rumanian troops and tried to force an entrance. They 
also wished to worship in accordance with the ritual 
of their church, but were held back and roughly 
handled. There was not room for all who wished to 

* " Kyrie Eleiscn," the Greek for " Lord have mercy on us," described 
by Cardinal Wiseman as " that cry for mercy which ia to be found in 
every liturgy of East and West." 

139 



140 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

enter in, and these were soldiers of the Revolution 
wearing the red cockade. One of them, quite a boy 
in years, fell prostrate and inarticulate on the steps, 
and was permitted to remain. 

The vigil ended shortly after midnight, and at its 
close the Archbishop led a procession to the precincts, 
where massed bands played, rockets soared high in 
Heaven, and true believers kissed each other, saying : 
" Christ is risen." 

Once more we entered the Cathedral, and what" I 
have called a Midnight Mass or Liturgy was celebrated. 
The term may well be a misnomer. There may not 
have been a mystical destruction, but there were 
prayers of penitence and praise, of supplication and 
thanksgiving, and these we are taught are the four 
ends of the sacrifice of the Mass. 

Jassy Cathedral is not one of those vast Gothic 
structures, whose symmetry and gorgeous decoration 
serve as memorials of the inspired human efforts which 
graced a more religious age. It is a plain unosten- 
tatious building of no great size. This night, 
however, it appeared transformed; height, length and 
breadth assumed immense, mysterious proportions — 
the chancel blazed with light, all other parts of the 
interior of the building were wrapped in obscurity, 
side chapels loomed like cavernous recesses, the nave 
was filled with flickering shadows, its vault resembled 
a dark firmament above a tense expectant multitude, 
a seemingly innumerable host, stretching far back in 
serried lines and ever deepening gloom. 

Rumanian soldiers predominated in the congrega- 
tion, the radiance from the altar was reflected on 
swart, fierce faces, and shone in countless eyes. Queen 
Mary, surrounded by her ladies, stood near the centre 
of the transept, a group of white-clad figures gleaming 
softly against the grey background. The King and 
his second son occupied two thrones on the south side 



A MIDNIGHT MASS 141 

of the chancel, facing them were the representatives 
of seven Allied States. 

At the commencement of the service the music was 
subdued, treble and alto voices recited canticles and 
chanted antiphons. Sometimes a clear soprano rang 
out alone. I could not understand the words, but 
one of the melodies recalled an air by Handel, a 
touching declaration of faith triumphant, a woman's 
voice proclaiming that her Eedeemer lives. Later, the 
character of the music changed. From a gallery at 
the Cathedral's western end, a choir of men thundered 
out paeans of rejoicing, which rose in shattering 
crescendos, and surged up to the altar in waves of 
sonorous sound. 

The climax of the ceremony was reached when the 
Archbishop left the altar steps and knelt before the 
King. The old Primate's work was done. This learned 
monk and priest of. God was a Bumanian citizen. As 
such he surrendered to his temporal sovereign the 
symbol of all Christendom, and his own most sacred 
charge. King Ferdinand received ft reverently, and 
a Catholic Hohenzollern Prince stood as the Head of 
Church and State holding a jewelled cross. 

An unexpected movement followed. Most of the 
foreign diplomats and soldiers pressed round the Eoyal 
throne, and paid homage to both spiritual and temporal 
power by kissing first the crucifix and then the 
Monarch's hand. 

This gesture was neither premeditated nor prompted 
by a spirit of Erastianism. It was the act of men 
under the influence of deep emotion. Something had 
touched their hearts; something, perhaps, which 
brought back memories of boyhood, when belief was 
ready, and young imaginations glowed, and youth was 
vowed to noble deeds ; something which stirred feelings 
numbed by contact with worldliness and cruelty on 
life's rough way; something, still fragrant and 



142 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

redolent -of innocence, which they had lost long since 
and found awhile. 

To the peasant soldiers, the music, the incense and 
the vestments combined to make a beatific vision, a 
light to those who walked in darkness, and whose 
simple faith was strong and real. They believed 
implicitly in the second advent of a man who had been, 
and would be again — Wonderful, a Counsellor, a Good 
Shepherd, and a Prince of Peace. They had known 
sorrow and defeat, the enemy was in their land, famine 
and pestilence were ravaging their homes, but they 
were soldiers of the Cross and undismayed. More 
battles would be fought, battles without the pomp and 
circumstance of those in theatres less remote. The 
last heroic stand at Marasesti* would be made by 
humble men, who, this night throughout Moldavia, 
were met together for a festival of their Church, not 
to sing songs of lamentation, but to cry Hallelujah and 
Hosanna, to tell the joyful tidings — " Christ is risen." 



* Marasesti is a village in the Sereth Valley, where six Rumanian 
divisions repelled repeated assaults by numerically superior German and 
Austro-Hungarian forces under Field-Marshal Mackensen. The Rumanians 
fought unsupported and caused 100,000 casualties in the enemy ranks. They 
held their positions until the signature of peace at Bucharest. 



CHAPTEB XIV 

" Westerners " and " Easterners." 

For many years before the " Great World War," the 
German Army had been the most formidable fighting 
machine in existence. It had filled professional 
soldiers in all countries with envy and admiration, as' 
the supreme expression of a warlike and disciplined 
race. 

When the war began the Allied Armies were 
unprepared, and were unable to withstand an offensive 
which was a triumph of scientific organisation and 
almost achieved complete success. The partial success 
of this first German offensive had two important 
results : it carried the war on the Western Front into 
French and Belgian territory, and more than confirmed 
the worst fears of Allied military experts as to the 
efficiency of the German Army. 

After the Battle of the Marne, a mood of extravagant 
optimism prevailed. One British general prophesied 
in September, 1914, that by the end of March, 1915, 
the Eussians would be on the Oder and the French and 
British on the Ehine. With the advent of trench 
warfare on the Western Front and the retreat of the 
Russians in East Prussia and Poland, the outlook 
became less rosy, and the Allies settled down to a 
form of war which was to last, with slight variations* 
until the armistice. 

Generally speaking, this form of war involved the 
subordination of Policy to Grand Tactics. Policy had 
for its object the protection of vital interests, more 
especially in the East, and aimed at securing the 

143 



144 OLD EUKOPE'S SUICIDE 

co-operation of neutral States with a view to 
strengthening the Alliance. Grand Tactics demanded 
the sacrifice of every consideration to ensuring victory 
on the Western Front. The failure of the expedition 
to the Dardanelles put statesmen, for a time at least, 
at the mercy of professional soldiers, of whom the vast 
majority, both French and British, were so-called 
" Westerners. " 

The ideas of these men were simple. If pursued to 
their logical conclusion they would have required the 
concentration of all Allied forces (including Serbs and 
Eussians) somewhere in France and Flanders. The 
more rabid Westerners did desire this, as they 
honestly believed that on their front there was no 
middle course between a decisive victory and a crush- 
ing defeat. Others admitted a Kussian, and later an 
Italian Front with its appendage at Salonika, but, in 
their eyes, the only object of these two fronts was to 
hold as many enemy troops as possible and facilitate 
a victory in the West. That victory was to be 
preceded by a war of attrition, which would culminate 
in a final batjtle on classic lines — the infantry and 
artillery would make >a gap through which massed 
cavalry would pour. 

The French Staff was characteristically optimistic, 
the British less so. Many senior British officers had 
a profound respect for the German Military System, 
it was to them the embodiment of excellence from 
every point of view, and had to be imitated before it 
could be beaten. 

In the autumn of 1915, the era of Allied counter- 
offensives began. The slaughter on both sides was 
immense, but no appreciable results were achieved. 
While these operations were being carried out, Bulgaria 
joined the Central Empires, the greater part of Servia 
and Albania was over-run, and, according to an official 



" WESTEENEES " AND " EASTEENEES " 145 

report on the operations against the Dardanelles, " (the 
flow of munitions and drafts fell away." 

Throughout the whole of 1916, the war of attrition 
was waged in deadly earnest and exacted a ghastly 
toll. By the end of the year no decision had been 
reached on the three main fronts, but the richest part 
of Eumania had fallen into the hands of the enemy. 

Public opinion in both France and Great Britain 
seemed to approve the methods of the Westerners. 
The French naturally desired above everything to drive 
the invaders out of France, and the British people had 
become resigned to a war of workshops, which was 
lucrative to those who stayed at home. 

From a purely military point of view, the attitude of 
the Westerners was comprehensible. The Western 
Front was close to the Allied bases of supply, it had 
good communications, the climate was healthy, on jthis 
front the Germans were encountered, and they formed 
the backbone of the hostile combination. Undoubtedly 
a victory in the Wesjt was the ideal way to win the 
war. No one disputed that, but >at the end of 1916 
that victory was still remote. Germany's position on 
the Western Front was very strong, her army was 
homogeneous, her communications were superior to 
curs, and her recent conquests in the East had 
mitigated the effects of two years of blockade. 

Since September, 1914, both sets of belligerents had 
made offensives, but these had failed, though in each 
case an initial success had raised the highest hopes. 
Stupendous preparations had been made, artillery had 
been employed on an unprecedented scale, lives had 
been sacrificed ruthlessly, but, invariably, ,the forward 
movement had been arrested, had ebbed a little and 
immobility had ensued. Some law .appeared to 
operate in this most modern form of warfare. Killing 
without manoeuvre had become an exact science, but 
bajttles are not merely battues, the armies must 



146 OLD EUBOPE'S SUICIDE 

advance, and this they could not do — their mass and 
the enormous assemblage of destructive appliances, 
necessary for the preliminary process of annihilation, 
produced a congestion which brought the best 
organised offensives to a standstill. In such circum- 
stances it seemed that final victory might be postponed 
for months and even years. 

Time pressed. The Central Empires held the land 
routes of South-Eastern Europe and Turkey was their 
vassal State, whereas the Allies disposed of precarious 
sea communications, which linked them with no more 
than the periphery of the Ottoman Empire and the 
Balkans at three widely separated points. In these 
regions the populations were being Germanised, 
inevitably and in spite of themselves. The Germans 
were on the spot, they might be arrogant and 
unsympathetic, but they were efficient, and suffering, 
unsophisticated people could justifiably argue that 
these intruders were better as friends than enemies, 
and that it paid to be on their side. To neglect this 
situation, until we had won a victory in the West, 
exposed the Allies to the risk of letting German 
influence become predominant throughout the Middle 
East. For the British Empire such a state of affairs 
would have spelt disaster; after untold sacrifices in the 
Allied cause, Great Britain would have lost the war. 

These weighty considerations had influenced certain 
British statesmen ever since the intervention of Turkey 
on the side of the Central Empires, but their plans 
had been frustrated by official inertia and mismanage- 
ment. In 1917, a serious effort was made to restore our 
prestige in the East by operations in the direction of 
Palestine and in Mesopotamia. These operations were 
against the same enemy and were carried out almost 
exclusively by British forces, but were independent of 
each other and not part of a concerted plan. The 
British War Office had undertaken the supply and 



•WESTERNERS" AND "EASTERNERS" 147 

maintenance of three " side-shows " (including 
Salonika), but had neither the time nor the inclination 
to prepare a scheme for the co-ordination of operations 
in the Eastern theatres. Perhaps it was feared that 
such a scheme would involve the despatch of reinforce- 
ments. 

The Eastern situation demanded, in the first place, 
statesmanship. A military policy was needed which, 
while recognising the preponderating importance of 
securing the Western Front, would aim at bringing 
pressure to bear on every part of the enemy combina- 
tion; which would not be content with local successes, 
but would attack Pan-Germanism, the real menace to 
the British Empire, where its activities were centred; 
which would strike at Germany through her Near 
Eastern allies, complete the circle of blockade on land 
and retrieve the sources of supply which had been 
taken from Rumania. 

Military operations alone would not suffice ; the 
co-operation of the navy was essential to reduce the 
risks from submarines which infested the Eastern 
Mediterranean. The shipping problem presented many 
difficulties These could be overcome only by Govern- 
mental action based on policy. If dealt with by 
subordinate officials, the distribution of available 
tonnage would follow the line of least resistance in the 
form of short trips to France. 

If the broad lines of an Eastern policy had been laid 
down and insisted on by the Allied Governments, a 
plan could have been put into execution which, while 
offensive operations were in progress in Mesopotamia, 
Palestine and Macedonia, would have directed against 
the heart of the Ottoman Empire a strategic reserve, 
concentrated with that objective in view at one or 
more of the Eastern Mediterranean ports. The force 
required would not have been considerable. The 
Turkish and Bulgarian armies were held on three 



148 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

distant fronts, leaving weak and scattered garrisons in 
Constantinople, Thrace, and the defences of the 
Dardanelles. 

The difficulties were many, but the stakes were big. 
The fall of Constantinople would have revolutionised 
the Is ear Eastern situation. It would have forced 
Turkey to make a separate peace, and would, thereby, 
have freed a large proportion of our forces in Palestine 
and Macedonia for employment in other theatres. It 
would have had an immediate effect in Bulgaria, where 
the resentment against Germany, on account of the 
partitioning of the Dobrudja, was bitter and wide- 
spread. It would have opened up communications 
by sea with the Kumanian and Russian armies in 
Moldavia, and made it possible to maintain and 
quicken the Southern Eussian front. An opportunity 
v/ould have presented itself for settling the Macedonian 
question on its merits, the Western Powers would 
have been the arbiters, and their decisions would have 
been respected as those of all-powerful allies or 
potential conquerors. A just settlement of this ques- 
tion could not have failed to secure the neutrality of 
Bulgaria. 

Any Balkan settlement, which fulfilled our treaty 
and moral obligations to Rumania and Servia 
respectively, involved the partial dismemberment of 
Austria-Hungary. An invasion of the Eastern and 
South-Western provinces of the Dual Monarchy was 
the natural corollary of an Eastern military policy. 
This invasion could have been effected by national 
armies advancing towards their ethnological frontiers. 
The Rumanians, after the reconquest of Wallachia, 
could have operated in Transylvania and along the 
Danube Valley towards the Banat. The Serbs in 
Bosnia and Herzegovina towards the Dalmatian Coast. 
In all these provinces the populations were awaiting 



"WESTEBNEKS" AND " EASTEENEKS " 149 

with impatience the arrival of the Allies to throw off 
the hated yoke of Austria -Hungary. 

Unquestionably, operations of this nature would 
have a repercussion in Croatia and Bohemia, where the 
inhabitants were disaffected and ready to revolt. Their 
attitude would have facilitated an extension of the 
invasion in the direction of Trieste. The occupation 
of Trieste would have completed the encirclement of 
German Austria and Germany. The German Western 
front would have been turned strategically, policy and 
strategy working in harmony, could have undertaken 
the task of isolating Prussia, the centre of militarism 
and the birthplace of Pan-Germanism. Munich and 
Dresden are closer to Trieste than to any point in 
France or Elanders. 

Such, in brief outline, was an Eastern military policy- 
which had been submitted repeatedly since the early 
stages of the war. It was first proposed as a com- 
plement to the operations on the Western and Eastern 
fronts. With the intervention of Italy, the possibility 
of its extension towards Croatia and Istria was per- 
ceived. At the beginning of 1917 it did not involve- 
the detachment of many additional divisions from 
other theatres. The aggregate casualties in one of 
the big offensives would have more than met require- 
ments. This detachment could have been justified on 
strategical grounds, since it would have forced the 
enemy to conform to at least an equal extent. It was; 
an attempt to harmonise strategy with policy, and on 
the principle of solvitur ambulando to deal, during the 
progress of the war, with a host of vexed racial 
problems which, during an armistice or in time of 
peace, are surrounded by intrigue. 

The advocates of an Eastern policy were described 
as " Easterners," a term which was susceptible of 
various interpretations. It meant, at best, a visionary* 



150 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

at worst, a traitor, according to the degree of indigna- 
tion inspired by heresies. 

Notwithstanding the failure of their previous efforts, 
the " Westerners " still claimed in 1917 that a decisive 
victory could and would be won on the Western front, 
if the Russo-Rumanian offensive came np to expecta- 
tions. They had organised the British nation for a 
special form of war. Thanks to a highly developed 
Intelligence Department, they knew exactly what they 
had to deal with. Hundreds of able-bodied officers 
had worked with all the ardour of stamp collectors at 
identifying enemy units, and had produced catalogues 
which in the judgment of archivists were impeccable, 
though at the time of issue they may have been out 
of date. The French Armies were commanded by the 
hero of Verdun,* and were full of the offensive spirit. 
The Italians were holding their own on the Carso and 
the Isonzo. The framework of the war was set, the 
far-flung buckler of the Central Empires would be 
pierced where they were strongest, the Germans 
would be beaten by their own methods, and at any 
cost. 

Once more the " Westerners " had their way. Once 
more their hopes were disappointed. At the end of 
1917, in spite of local tactical successes, the Western 
front remained unbroken, the Italians had retreated to 
the line of the Piave, and the Eastern front had dis- 
solved in the throes of revolution. In Palestine and 
Mesopotamia, the Allies had struck two heavy blows 
at Turkey, and the Ottoman Empire was drifting into 
chaos. A direct blow at Constantinople would have 
encountered slight opposition, it would have been 
welcomed by the masses of the people as a deliverance. 
In Macedonia the Bulgars were showing signs of dis- 
affection, but here inaction, both military and 



General Nivelles. 



11 WESTEENEES" AND " EASTEENEES " 151 

diplomatic, continued the stalemate. The alliance 
of America had saved the financial situation, but no 
effective military support could be expected from this 
quarter for many months to come. 

Fortunately for the British Empire and for civilisa- 
tion, German policy was also controlled by 
"Westerners." These men were essentially experts, 
past masters of technique, but indifferent exponents 
of the military art when applied to a world-wide war. 
They had failed to seize their opportunity in 1914, when 
Paris and the Channel Ports were at thair mercy. 
During 1915 and 1916 they had squandered lives and 
ammunition in costly offensives on the Western front, 
when they might have taken Petrograd. In 1917 
they lacked the insight to perceive that their conquests 
on the Eastern front more than compensated the check 
to overweening aspirations in the West, which, owing 
to their past mistakes, could not be gratified. If at 
the end of 1917 the German Government had offered 
terms of peace, based on the evacuation of France and 
Belgium and including the cession of Alsace and Lor- 
raine, and had during the winter months withdrawn 
their troops to the right bank of the Meuse, the Allied 
Governments could hardly have refused. 

In France the drain on man-power had been 
appalling. A continuance of hostilities involving 
further losses would have aroused opposition in 
influential circles, and would have been denounced as 
illogical and quixotic, as a sacrifice of French interests 
on the altar of Great Britain, when peace could be had 
on advantageous terms. The position of the other 
Allies would have been difficult in the extreme. To 
continue the war in the West, without France as a 
base, would have been impossible. The only alterna- 
tive would have been an intensification of the blockade 
and the operations in the Eastern theatres. These 



152 OLD EUEOPE'S SUICIDE 

operations would no longer have been confined to 
Turks and Bulgars, and new bases would have been 
required to mount them on a proper scale; further, 
the non-existence of a comprehensive Eastern policy 
would have been a cause of much delay. America had 
not declared war against either Turkey or Bulgaria. 
The Italians had interests in the East; but, under these 
altered circumstances, their position on the Piave front 
would have been critical, and might have forced them 
to make peace. The Allied peoples were war weary, 
peace talk would have aroused their hopes, and have 
been more convincing than the arguments of 
Imperialists. 

By proposing peace, the German Government might 
have lost prestige, but would have gained some- 
thing more substantial — a secure position in the East. 
Instead, at the beginning of 1918, everything was 
sacrificed to a renewal of offensives on the Western 
front. The- reinforcements asked for by Bulgaria were 
not sent, and Turkey was abandoned to her fate. 
Ominous mutterings from the working classes in 
Germany were disregarded. By rigorous application 
of the military system ancTby promises of victory, a 
clique of ambitious generals kept the German people 
well in hand. 

If a frontal attack against a sector of an "immense 
entrenched position could lead to decisive results, the 
German offensive of March, 1918, should have had the 
desired effect. It penetrated to within ten miles of 
Amiens, a vital point on the Allied communications, 
and there, in spite of the most prodigious efforts, it 
petred out. The ratio between fbhe front of attack 
and the depth of advance had exceeded all previous 
records, but just as success seemed certain, human 
endurance reached its limits, and proved once more 
its subjugation to an inhuman and automatic law. The 



" WESTEENEES " AND " EASTEENEES " 153 

British front had not been broken, though it had been 
badly bent. 

Undeterred by this dreadful and unavailing, 
slaughter the German leaders persisted in their efforts, 
and staked the destiny of their country on one last 
gambler's throw. Four offensives had been repulsed, 
a fifth was now attempted with Paris as its goal. It 
was dictated by political, and possibly dynastic, con- 
siderations, and was not executed with customary 
German skill. 

To close observers, it had for some time been apparent 
that German strategy was weakening. There had 
been less coherence in the operations, and symptoms 
of indecision on the part of the High Command. Field- 
Marshal Foch was undoubtedly a better strategist 
than any of his adversaries, and the war of 
movement, resulting from the German offensives, 
gave him an opportunity which he was not 
slow to seize. A series of hammer blows .along 
the whole Western front deprived Ludendorff 
of the initiative which he had hitherto possessed, and 
forced the German armies to evacuate the salients in 
the direction of Paris and Amiens. 

Other and more fundamental factors, however, had 
already undermined Germany's powers of resistance. 
The discontent among the masses of the German 
population had assumed menacing proportions; it 
affected the troops on the lines of communication 
directly, and through them the soldiers on the front. 
During the last offensives the number of men who 
surrendered voluntarily had been above the average, 
and when the retirement began, when all hopes of 
taking Paris in 1918 had disappeared, when American 
soldiers had been encountered, proving .the failure of 
the submarine campaign, the spirit of the German 
Armies changed. Certain units still fought well, but 



154 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

the majority of the German soldiers became untrust- 
worthy, though not yet mutinous. An eye-witness 
relates that on their arrival at Chateau Thierry,* the 
German officers were in the highest spirits, and the 
words " Nach Paris "t were continually on their iips. 
The men, on the other hand, seemed depressed and 
moody, but when the order was issued for withdrawal, 
their demeanour brightened, they found a slogan full 
of portents, the words were " Nach Berlin "J and were 
uttered with a smile. This incident is authentic, it 
took place in July. 

History was repeating itself, misgovernment by a 
selfish upper class had produced in Germany the same 
conditions which had driven the Eussian people into 
revolution. In both countries a state of war had 
accentuated pre-existent evils, by giving a freer rein to 
those who exploit patriotism, courage and devotion for 
their personal ends. Germany had outlasted Eussia 
because, in her military system, she had an almost 
perfect organisation from an administrative point of 
view. This system had enabled the German people to 
make incredible efforts, by concentrating all the 
resources of the nation on a single purpose and putting 
them at the disposal of a few resolute, all-powerful 
men. Had it been controlled by statesmen, total 
disruption might have been averted; directed by 
infatuated and homicidal militarists, its very excellence 
enabled it to hold the Empire in its grip until disaster 
was complete. 

From June, 1918, onwards, all hope of a German 
victory on the Western Front had disappeared. 
Germany was seething with discontent, her industrial 
life was paralysed, the supply of munitions had 
seriously decreased ; yet Ludendorff persevered, he 

* Chateau Thierry is a town on the Marne, and was the nearest point 
to Paris reached by the German offensive of July, 1918. 

t To Paris. 1 To Berlin. 



" WESTEENEES" AND " EASTEENEES " 155 

drove the armies with remorseless energy, a kind of 
madness possessed him and his acolytes, imposing 
desperate courses and blinding them to facts. Their 
whole political existence was at stake, failure meant 
loss of place and power, of all that made life sweet, 
so they conceived a sinister design — if they failed " all 
else should go to ruin and become a prey." 

When the crash came, it came from within. For 
months, the German armies on the front had been a 
facade screening a welter of misery and starvation. 
The machine had functioned soullessly, causing the 
useless massacre of thousands of soldiers, while women 
and children died by tens of thousands in the midst of 
fictitious opulence. During these last days, the rank 
and file fought without hope, for an Emperor who was 
to save himself by flight, for leaders who treated them 
like pawns, for the defence of hearths and homes where 
famine and disease were rife. Long years of discipline 
had made these men automatons, they were parts of 
a great projectile whose momentum was not yet 
exhausted, and they had long ceased to reason why. 

Unreasoning docility is held by some to be a civic 
virtue : that was the German doctrine and the basis of 
their Military System, which, though at its inception 
a defensive system, became an instrument of conquest, 
pride and insolence, a menace to the world. The form 
of war which Germany initiated and perfected has 
degraded war itself, it has organised slaughter with 
mechanical devices, has made tanks of more account 
than brains, and has crowned the triumph of matter 
over mind. There was a redeeming glamour about war 
as made by Alexander and Napoleon, to-day it is a 
hideous butchery, which can be directed by com- 
paratively mediocre men. It has ceased to be an art 
and has become an occupation inextricably interwoven 
with a nation's industrial life. 



156 OLD EUKOPE'S SUICIDE 

The downfall of the German Military System is a 
stern reminder of the vicissitude of things, and has 
removed a brooding shadow which darkened civilisa- 
tion. If calamitous experience serves as a guide to 
statesmen in the future, its rehabilitation will be 
prevented — in any form, however specious, in any 
land. 



CHAPTEE XV. 
1919. The Peace Conference at Paris. 

' ' Until philosophers are kings, of the kings and princes 
of this world have the power and spirit of philosophy, and 
political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those com- 
moner natures which pursue either at the expense of the 
other are compelled to stand aside — cities will never rest 
from their evils, no — nor the human race, as I believe." 

Plato. 

Four days before the official declaration of war on 
Germany by the Government of the United States, 
President Wilson made a speech before the American 
Congress which contained the following passage : * 
We shall fight . . . for Democracy . . . for the 
rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal 
dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as 
shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make 
the world itself at last free." A few months later the 
same spokesman of a free people declared:! "They 
(men everywhere) insist . . . that no nation or people 
shall be robbed or punished because the irresponsible 
rulers of a single country have themselves done deep 

and abominable wrong The wrongs .... 

committed in this war . . . cannot and must not be 
righted by the commission of similar wrongs against 
Germany and her allies." Later still, when the 
victory of Democracy had become certain, a forecast 
of the terms of peace was given by the same authorita- 
tive voice : + "In four years of conflict the whole world 

* Speech of April 2nd, 1917. 
t Message of December 4th, 1917. 
X Declaration of September 27tB, 1918. 
157 



158 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE " 

has been drawn in, and the common will of mankind 
has been substituted for the particular purposes of 
individual States. The issues must now be settled by 
no compromise or adjustment, but definitely and once 
for all. There must be a full acceptance of the 
principle that the interest of the weakest is as sacred 
as the interest of the strongest. That is what we mean 
when we speak of a permanent peace." 

These and a number of similar utterances had pro- 
duced a deep effect throughout the world. The ruling 
classes in Europe professed to regard them as merely 
propaganda, and not to be taken seriously, but they 
could not escape the uneasy consciousness that their 
own methods in the past were being arraigned before 
an unpleasantly public court of justice. Moderate 
opinion in all countries was disposed to welcome these 
bold statements of democratic principles as furnishing 
a convenient bridge to a more advanced stage in 
political evolution, views which would have been con- 
demned as sentimental, and even anarchic in a humbler 
social reformer, on the lips of a President were con- 
sidered as a statesman's recognition of the logic of hard 
facts. The masses thought they were the " plain 
people," for whom and to whom the President had 
spoken, and in their hearts had risen a great hope. 

When Mr. Wilson first arrived in Europe huge 
crowds acclaimed him, and, making due allowance for 
the cynical, the curious and indifferent, these crowds 
contained a far from insignificant proportion of ardent, 
enthusiastic spirits, who welcomed him not as 
a President or a politician, but as the bearer 
of a message, not as a Rabbi with a doctrine 
made up of teachings in the synagogues, but 
as a latter-day Messiah come to drive forth 
the money-changers and intriguers from the 
temple of a righteous peace. Eager idealists believed 
that the victory of democracy had set a period to the 



1919.— PEACE CONFERENCE IN PARIS 159 

evils resulting from autocratic forms of government, 
that with the termination of the war the topmost block 
had been placed on a pyramid of errors, that a real 
master-builder had appeared, who would lay the 
foundations of a cleaner, better world. They saw in 
him the champion of decency and morality, a doughty 
champion, strong in the backing of millions of free 
people, who had seen liberty in danger, and had sent 
their men across an ocean to fight for freedom in an 
older world in torment. They were grateful and 
offered him their services, loyally and unreservedly, 
asking but one thing — to be shown the way. History 
contains no parallel to this movement. Savanarola 
and Rienzi had appealed to local, or at most national 
feeling. Here was a man who stood for something 
universal and inspiring, who was more than a heroic 
priest, more than the tribune of a people, a man who, 
while enjoying personal security, could speak and act 
for the welfare of all peoples in the name of right. 
For such causes, men in the past have suffered per- 
secution and have been faithful unto death. 

No Peace Conference has ever undertaken a more 
stupendous task than that which confronted the 
delegates of the Allied States in Paris in January, 
1919. Central Europe was seething with revolution 
and slowly dying of starvation. Beyond lay Russia, 
unknown yet° full of portents, more terrible to many 
timorous souls than ever Germany had been. The 
war had come to a sudden and unexpected end, and 
enemy territory had not been invaded save at extremi- 
ties which were not vital points. The Central Empires 
and their Allies had collapsed from internal causes. 
Germany and Austria could not, for the moment, 
oppose invasion, which had lost all its terrors for dis- 
tracted populations, who hoped that French and 
British soldiers would, by their presence, maintain 
law and order and ensure supplies of food. On the 



160 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

other hand, neither the Serbs nor the Rumanians had 
had their territorial aspirations satisfied during the 
progress of the war. Both races had followed the 
usual Balkan custom by invading the territories they 
claimed during the armistice; this method, when 
employed against Hungarians, involved the use of 
force ; it also embittered relations between themselves 
where, as in the Banat, their claims clashed and 
overlapped. Further north, the Czecho- Slovaks had 
proclaimed their independence, and Poland was being 
resurrected; the frontiers of both these States were 
vague and undefined, but their appetities were un- 
limited, and Teschen, with its coalfields, was a pocket 
in dispute. 

Not only had the Peace Conference to endeavour 
to prevent excessive and premature encroachment on 
enemy territory by Allied States, it had also to com- 
pose serious differences between the Western Powers 
in regard to the Adriatic coast, Syria, and Asia Minor 
arising out of secret treaties. 

These considerations, though embarrassing for the 
representatives of Great Britain, France and Italy, 
did not affect President Wilson to the same extent; 
in fact they rather strengthened his position and con- 
firmed the expectation that he would be the real arbiter 
of the Conference. His speeches had, in the opinion 
of innumerable men and women, indicated the only 
solution of the world-problem. The " Fourteen 
Points " had outlined, without inconvenient precision, 
a settlement of international questions; he was the 
head of a State untrammelled by secret treaties, the 
only State not on the verge of bankruptcy, a State 
which could furnish both moral and material aid. 
When M. Albert Thomas said that the choice lay 
between Wilson and Lenin, he may have been guilty 
of exaggeration, but he expressed a feeling which was 
general and real. Whether that feeling was justified, 
the future alone will show. 



1919.— PEACE CONFERENCE IN PABIS 101 

In the Declaration of September 27, 1918 President 
Wilson stated: " All who sit at the Peace table must 
be S to pay the price, and the price is impartial 
iustice no matter whose interest is crossed. .." Later 
J on in the same Declaration he added: "to^ 
able instrumentality is a League of Nations but it 
„+ h a formed now " P We conditions of peace 
^^1 forthfof th^e the third laid down that there 
3 be no alliances or covenants within the League 
of Nations, and the Declaration concluded with an 
appeal to the Allies: " I hope that the leaders oi : the 
TCI Governments will speak as plainly as I have 
tried to speak, and say whether my statement of the 

^Hl^TE** ordinary man after 
perusing this Declaration, was that its author expected 
the Conference to deal with each and every question 
cm its merits, that the " League of Nations would 
eventually be the instrument employed m reaching 
the fina settlement, and that, following on the estab- 
i«hment of the League, all previous alliances would 
cease to exist and future alliances would be Poinded. 
The questioning form of the concludmg sentence sug- 
gested doubts as to the attitude of the Associated 
& but the presence of the President at the peace 
table served as presumptive evidence that those 
doubts had been set at rest. 

A "League of Nations" was, undoubtedly the 
ideal instrument for achieving a just sett ement of the 
niany and varied questions which confronted the Peace 
Conference "but a " League," or " Society of Nations 
as deftnTby Lord llobert Cecil,* could not be created 

,I„ a speech at, Birmingham >™j**fc£, "!-*T n^e^g^P, 
Robert Cecil said: ' Our new T ^f/ bs °^y " s 5 seI1 tial that the 'League 
however large and ™portau t It » ah aulute ly es b( , ^^ fc t 

?inrsraec S y d efan?mo,'Ve T pr!nc n ,p.es and basis 0« -a Socn*,. 



162 OLD EUEOPE'S SUICIDE 

Germany and her Allies, with, as its corollary, the 
inclusion of, at least, Germany, Austria, and Hungary 
within the League ; in the words of Lord Robert Cecil, 
such a Society would be incomplete, and proportion- 
ately ineffective, unless every civilised State joined it. 
The formation of a full-fledged League required 
time. Further, in the frame of mind which prevailed 
in all the Allied and Associated States, a real " Society 
of Nations," implying "friendly association" with 
the enemy peoples, as distinguished from their late 
" irresponsible Governments," was impossible. An 
alternative did, however, exist — an alternative for 
which a precedent could be found and which needed 
moral leadership rather than cumbrous machinery for 
its application. This alternative would have consisted 
of three processes : the. conclusion of a Preliminary 
Peace with Germany and her Allies, combined with 
suspension of blockade; the admission to the Peace 
Conference of delegates representing the different parts 
of the German Empire, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, 
and Turkey; collaboration with these delegates in the 
settlement of territorial readjustments in accordance 
with the principles enunciated in President Wilson's 
speeches and the " Fourteen Points." The Congress 
of Vienna had set the precedent by admitting to its 
councils Talleyrand, the representative of a conquered 
State which had changed its form of government in 
the hour of defeat. The conclusion of a " Preliminary 
Peace " presented no difficulty. Germany had 
reached the lowest pitch of weakness; her military 
and naval forces had ceased to exist, her population 
was dependent on the Allies for supplies of food, she 
was torn by internal dissensions, and the Socialist and 
Democratic parties had gained the upper hand. 
Bavaria was showing separatist tendencies, and her 
example might be followed by other German States. 
The same conditions prevailed in the other enemy 



1919.— PEACE CONFERENCE IN PAEIS 163 

countries to an even more marked degree. In short, 
the Allies could have counted on acceptance of any 
preliminary peace terms which they might have 
chosen to impose. They could have ensured their 
fulfilment, not only by the maintenance of military 
forces on provisional and temporary frontiers, but also 
by the threat of a reimposition of an effective blockade. 
In an atmosphere free from the blighting influences 
of an armistice, dispassionate treatment of a mass of 
ethnical questions would have been possible. An 
appeal could have been made to the common sense 
and interests of the enemy peoples, through their 
statesmen and publicists, which would have disarmed 
reaction, and which would have made it possible to 
utilise the more enlightened elements in the key- 
States of Central Europe for the attainment of a 
durable peace. A Peace Conference so composed 
would have been the embryo of a true " Society of 
Nations, " a fitting, instrument for the practical appli- 
cation of theories not new nor ill-considered, whose 
development had been retarded in peaceful, prosperous 
times, and which now were imperatively demanded 
by multitudes of suffering people weighed down by 
sorrow and distress. 

Mr. Wilson does not seem to have considered any 
alternative to the immediate formulation of a covenant 
of the " League of Nations." He left the all- 
important question of peace in abeyance, and devoted 
his energies to the preparation of a document which 
would serve as an outward and visible sign of personal 
success. Perhaps he was dismayed by the exposition, 
in reactionary Allied circles, to moral theories con- 
sidered by officials to be impracticable and even dan- 
gerous, however useful they might once have been 
for purposes ^ of propaganda. He may have been 
paralysed amid unaccustomed surroundings where he 
was not the supreme authority. At any rate he neg- 



164 OLD EUBOPE'S SUICIDE 

lected to use a weapon whose potency he, of all rulers, 
should have known — the weapon of publicity, which 
was, as ever, at his service and would have rallied 
to the causes he espoused the support and approval 
of sincere reformers in every class. He worked in 
secret and secured adhesion to a draft of the covenant 
of the ' ' League of Nations, ' ' whose colourless and 
non-committal character betrayed official handiwork. 

The man who had arrived in Paris as the bearer of 
a message, whose echoes had filled the world with 
hope, left France the bearer of a " scrap of paper." 
He returned to find his authority lessened. Before, 
he had stood alone; he came back to take his place 
as one of the " Big Four." It is given to few men to 
act as well as to affirm. 

Mr. Lloyd George was unable to help the President ; 
his election speeches had been the reverse of a moral 
exposition of the issues, and the Parliamentary 
majority they had helped to create allowed no lapses 
into Liberalism. More than a year had passed since 
the Prime Minister of Great Britain had stated that 
the British people were not fighting " a war of aggres- 
sion against the German people . . . or to destroy 
Austria-Hungary, or to deprive Turkey of its capital 
or of the rich and renowned lands of Asia Minor and 
Thrace which are predominantly Turkish in race." 
Teschen had not been heard of then, and the demands 
of Italy and M. Venizelos were either forgotten or 
ignored. Mr. Lloyd George's native sense and insight 
would have avoided many pitfalls; the Bullit revela- 
tion? i\& no more than bare justice to his acumen in 
regard to Bussia, but he Was terrorised by a section 
of the British Press, which held him relentlessly to 
vote-catching pledges, however reckless or extrava- 
gant. 

The Prime Minister of the French Bepublic was 
preoccupied with revenging past humiliations, with 



1919.— PEACE CONFEEENCE IN PAEIS 165 

retrieving the fortunes of his country and making it 
secure He did lip-service to the ''League of 
Nations " but talked of it with sardonic humour, and 
did it infinite harm. A dominating personality and a 
prodigious intellect enriched by wide experience were 
fost to the cause of human progress. No rare occur- 
renee, when the possessors of these gifts are old. 

With the progress of the Conference M Clemen- 
eeau's influence became stronger. He had made 
fewer public speeches than his colleagues, and perhaps 
that simplified his task. " Certain it is that words, 
as a Tartar's bow do shoot back upon the understand- 
ing of the wisest, and mightily entangle and pervert 

^Whfle^precious months were being devoted to 
framing the draft covenant of the League of Nations 
Commissions appointed by the Peace Conference had 
been busy preparing reports on multifarious points of 
detail Thesereports were the work of experts and 
could not fail to influence the final oecisions ot the 
Supreme Council; as a matter of fact, they were fol- 
lowed textually in some of the weightiest decisions 
reached. The men who prepared them were m no 
sense statesmen, they were trammelled by othcial 
routine and exposed to all manner of outside influences 
The whole tone of life in Paris was inimical to an 
objective attitude. Clamours for vengeance distorted 
the natural desire of honest men in France and 
Belgium for security against future aggression by a 
resuscitated Germany. The big mdustnal mtereste 
wanted to stifle German trade and at the same time 

exact a huge indemnity; they exploited the expecta- 
tion of the working classes that, as a result of victory 

Allied industry would be given a fair start in tuture 

competition with the enemy States. 
Tn the absence of any higher guidance, either moral 

or informed, statecraft was entirely lacking in tne 



166 OLD EUKOPE'S SUICIDE 

proceedings of the Conference, yet the situation was 
such that, if adroitly handled, measures were possible 
which would have contributed powerfully to the 
security of France and Belgium, by attenuating and 
dissipating reactionary elements in the German 
Empire. Advantage might have been taken of the 
distrust inspired by Prussia in the other German 
States, to create autonomous and neutral zones in the 
Palatinate and the territory formerly comprised in the 
Hauseatic League, to assist Bavaria to shake off 
Prussian hegemony, and become a component with 
German Austria of a new Catholic State in South- 
Eastern Europe, where conflicting national aims and 
unruly populations needed a counterweight. 

No such measures were taken. The Conference was 
obsessed with details. Every conceivable question was 
discussed before the one that was most urgent — the 
conclusion of some form of peace which would let the 
w r orld resume its normal life. A state of affairs was 
protracted which encouraged the greedy and unscrupu- 
lous, which checked any expression of opinion by the 
" plain people " of President Wilson's speeches, which 
gave an opening to militarists, jingo journalists, and 
politicians, whose ideas were those of German Junkers 
and who still believed in war. 

Jungle law reasserted itself. In an allegoric sense, 
the Conference was like a jungle through which a forest 
fire had passed, destroying the scanty verdure it had 
once possessed, leaving bare, blackened stumps too 
hard to burn. Some of the larger, fiercer beasts had 
been expelled; a few remained, and they, too, had 
been changed. A solitary eagle had descended from 
his distant eyrie and, like a parrot, screeched inces- 
santly, "Fiume, Fiume, Fiume " — a chuckle fol- 
lowed, it said — " Fourteen Points " but was an obvious 
aside. The performance was disappointing; polished 



1919.— PEACE CONFEEENCE IN PABIS 167 

and well-turned phrases had been expected from so 
great a bird. The lion's majestic mien had altered 
somewhat, his movements were uncertain; from 
time to time his eyes sought, furtively, a pack ot 
iackals, who should have hunted with him, but of 
late, they had grown insolent to their natural leader 
and reviled him in a high-pitched, daily wail. An old 
and wounded tiger roamed about the jungle; his 
strength, so far from being impaired, had become 
almost leonine; sometimes the jackals joined his own 
obedient cubs, and then he snarled contentedly while 
the lion roared with jealousy and rage. The bear was 
absent; he had turned savage through much suffering, 
and the wolves who prowled around the outskirts cf 
the jungle prevented him from entering; they howled 
with terror whenever he approached, and wanted the 
lion and the tiger to help to kill this dangerous type 
of bear. A yellow dragon moaned in the far distance, 
but was unheeded; he was no more a peril and had 
little left for the other beasts to steal. Jubilant and 
shrill, the crowing of a cock was heard above the babel 
of the jungle, announcing, to all who cared to listen 
the dawn of fifteen years of liberty m the valley ot 

'W* Peace Treaties promulgated by the Conference 
at Paris are impregnated with the atmosphere in which 
they were drawn up— an atmosphere charged with 
suspicion and hatred, fear and greed ; not one of them 
is in the spirit of the League of Nations. The Treaty 
with Germany, in particular, discloses the predominance 
of French influence in Allied councils. An old French 
nobleman once remarked, " Lea Bourgeois sont 
terribles lors qu'ils ont eu peur. The conditions 

imposed on a democratised and utterly defeated 
Germany are terrible indeed, but curiously ineffective; 
they are a timid attempt to modify vindictiveness by 

a half-hearted application of President Wilsons 



168 OLD EUKOPE'S SUICIDE 

ethical principles-; they satisfy no one; this is their 
one redeeming feature, since it shows that they might 
have been even more vindictive and still more futile 
for the achievement of their purpose, which was, 
presumably, a lasting peace. Militarists and reac- 
tionaries could not conceive a state of peace which 
did not repose on force and the military occupation 
of large tracts of German territory. They were twenty 
years behind the times. They did not realise that 
armies in democratic countries consist of human 
beings who observe and think, who cannot be treated 
as machines, and bidden to subordinate their reasoning 
faculties to the designs of a few selfish and ambitious 
men. Liberal thinkers, on the other hand, were 
shocked at Treaties which inflamed the hearts of 
seventy million German-speaking people with hatred 
and a desire for revenge, which cemented German 
unity, which aroused a widespread irredentism and 
gave an incentive to industrious, efficient populations 
to devote their time and efforts to preparations for a 
future war and not to the arts of peace. Such men were 
neither visionaries nor sentimentalists, they were 
practical men of affairs, who foresaw that security 
could not be attained by visiting the sins of outworn 
mediaeval Governments on the heads of their innocent 
victims throughout Central Europe; that by the em- 
ployment of such methods the " League of Nations '' 
was turned into a farce; that exasperation would 
foster and provoke recalcitrance ; that Germany would 
be a magnet to every dissatisfied State; that other 
leagues and combinations might be formed, on which 
it would be impossible to enforce a limitation of their 
armaments. They pointed out that the imposition of 
fabulous indemnities was two-edged, that payment of 
nine -tenths of the sums suggested would have to be 
made in manufactured goods or raw materials, a mode 
of payment which, in the end, might be more profit- 



1919.— PEACE CONFEEENCE IN PAEIS 169 

able to those that paid than to the peoples who 
received. 

Inaugurated in an idealism which may have been 
exaggerated but was none the less sincere, the Peace 
Conference has blighted the hope and faith of " plain 
people " everywhere, and has consecrated cant. 
Eespectability has been enthroned amid circumstances 
of wealth and power; in its smug and unctuous 
presence morality has found no place. The founda- 
tions of a cleaner, better world have not been laid; 
the apex has been placed on a pyramid of errors, on 

which nothing can be built. 

*-■•*■*.* 

Versailles was chosen as the setting for a historic 
ceremony — the signature of the Peace Treaty with 
what was still the German Empire, though the 
imperial throne was vacant and a workman presided 
at the councils of an Imperial Government. The 
choice was not without significance. Democracy had 
triumphed, and, in the hour of victory, had followed 
the example of autocratic rulers when making peace 
with other autocrats. It was therefore only fitting 
that this Peace Treaty, whose terms are inspired by 
the spirit of the past, should be signed in a palace of 
the Kings of France. 

A palace on an artificial eminence, where once had 
been flat marshes and wild forest land, built by a 
monarch to whom nothing was impossible, and for 
the indulgence of whose whims no cost was deemed 
excessive, either in money or in human lives. Viewed 
from the west on misty autumn evenings, it seems 
an unearthly fabric; the exquisite harmony of its line 
crowns and completes the surrounding landscape, 
floating, as by enchantment, above the tree tops, as 
light in texture as the clouds. A palace such as 
children dream of, when fairy stories haunt their 
minds, peopling the world with princes young and 



170 OLD EUKOPE'S SUICIDE 

valiant, princesses beautiful and wayward, whose 
parents are virtuous Kings and Queens and live in 
palaces like Versailles. 

Below the terraces a broad alley stretches west- 
ward and meets the horizon at two poplars. Beyond 
these isolated trees nothing but the sky is seen. They 
stand like sentinels guarding the confines of a vast 
enclosure, where art and nature have conspired to 
shut out the ugly things in life. A French Abbe, whose 
cultured piety ensures him a welcome in this world 
and admission to the next, said that the royalty of 
France had passed between and beyond those poplars 
— into nothingness. 

Amid a galaxy of statues of monarchs, statesmen, 
warriors, goddesses and nymphs, only one piece of 
sculpture serves as a reminder that a suffering world 
exists — the face of a woman of the people, graven in 
bass-relief upon the central front. An old and tragic 
face, seamed with deep wringles, sullen, inscrutable, 
one can imagine it hunched between shoulders bowed 
by toil and shrunk by joyless motherhood. The eyes 
of stone, to which a sculptor's art has given life, are 
hard and menacing, hopeless but not resigned; 
beneath their steadfast gaze had passed all that was 
splendid in a bygone age, the greatest autocrats on 
earth and women of quite a different sort. 

" Sceptre and crown had tumbled down 
And in the level dust been laid 
With the poor yokel's scythe and spade."* 

There were many faces in France and other countries 
which wore this same expression, even after the 
triumph of Democracy over the autocrats of Central 
Europe. They were not to be seen, however, on the 

*In the original — " Sceptre and crown will tumble down, 
And in the level dust be laid," 

etc. 



1919.— PEACE CONFEEENCE IN PAEIS 171 

terraces of the palace when the Treaty of Peace with 
Germany was signed in the " Hall of Mirrors," where 
men in black were met together on yet another " Field 
of Blackbirds," where, after months of bickering, the 
larger birds were expounding to their weaker brethren 
the latest infamies of Jungle Law. The well-dressed 
men and women who thronged those terraces were 
something between the proud aristocrats who had 
created the legend of Versailles and the masses of the 
underworld who had survived them, and yet they 
seemed further from the two extremes than the ex- 
tremes were from each other; they were not of the 
stuff of leaders and were too prosperous to be led; 
their manner was almost timid to the soldiers on duty 
at this ceremony, who, though men of the people, 
were disdainful to civilians after four years of war. 
One felt that this was a class which might, at no 
distant date, attempt to imitate some Eoman 
Emperors and pay Pretorian Guards. A catastrophic 
war had contained no lesson for these people; for 
them, its culmination at Versailles was far more a 
•social than a political event; they took no interest in 
politics, they wanted security for property and a 
Government of strong men who would keep the masses 
well in hand. They were not real democrats, and 
they cheered both long and loud, when the men, who 
between them had betrayed Democracy, emerged 
from the stately palace to see the fountains play. 



CHAPTEB XVI. 



Looking Back and Looking Forward. 

?»=s -attCSTi: ass ^ 

Tf 1 alternative existed between looking back on 
th" olow aaTancIof evolution and looking forward 

eager to reach some higher ground. 

Looking back over the past seven years a reflective 
m&alled^y then. « and -aste, a^et 

an rr^fruthless logTc cf inevitable sequence, to be 



174 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

inhuman outlook and mediocrity of mind were 
screened by a mask of mystery. A piecemeal study 
would be profitless. Military instruction might be 
gained from oft-recurring slaughter, and hints on how 
to hoodwink peoples could certainly be gathered from 
spasmodic intervals of peace. But these are not the 
lessons the world seeks, they are precisely what it 
wishes to forget. Rather, the effort must be made to 
trace the underlying impulse in this tragic drama, 
which runs through it like a " leit-motif," which welds 
together processes so varying in their nature, and 
renders them cumulative and inseparable, until they 
culminate in one unified and comprehensive act. 

In its broadest sense, that impulse had its source 
in a frame of mind, in a false conception, expressed in 
outworn governmental systems left uncontrolled and 
tolerated by the victims, who, though suffering, 
dreaded change. Indisputably, the Central Empires 
were the aggressors against the peace of Europe ; they 
presented a supreme example of autocratic Govern- 
ments which aimed at world-dominion both in a 
political and economic sense. To the ruling classes 
in Germany and Austria-Hungary, the war of libera- 
tion in the Balkans in 1912 was an opportunity to be 
seized, with a lack of scruple as cynical as it was 
frank, because they hoped to fish in troubled waters; 
its perversion into an internecine struggle was con- 
sidered clever diplomacy. The Treaty of Bucharest 
in 1913 was regarded as a triumph of statecraft, since 
it caused a readjustment of the " Balance of Power " 
in favour of themselves. To these nefarious proceed- 
ings the rest of Europe gave a tacit acquiescence. 
The family of nations consisted of six Great Powers; 
Small States existed under sufferance and were 
treated as poor relations. Their rights were nebulous 
and sometimes inconvenient, not to be recognised until 
they could be extorted. This happened sometimes. 



LOOKING BACK & LOOKING FORWARD 175 

The " Balance of Power " was a net with closely 
woven meshes. Even the strongest carnivori in the 
jungle required, at times, the assistance of a mouse. 

Judged by its conduct of affairs in 1912 and the 
early part of 1913, the British Government was 
without a Continental policy; at first, it seemed to 
favour Austria-Hungary; the Albanian settlement and 
the Treaty of Bucharest were a triumph for the 

Ball-Platz,"* though both these transactions were 
shortsighted and unjust. French policy was paralysed 
by fear of Germany, and owing to a mistaken choice 
of representatives, in almost all the Balkan capitals, 
the French Foreign Office was curiously ill-informed. 
Italy was the ally of the Central Powers and could 
not realise her own colonial aspirations without their 
help. Russia, as ever, was the enigma, and Russian 
policy in the Balkans, though ostensibly benevolent, 
aimed at the reduction of Bulgaria and Servia to the 
position of vassal States. Rumania was also an ally 
of the Central Powers. Dynastic and economic 
reasons made her their client. She held aloof from 
purely Balkan questions, and posed as the " Sentinel 
of the East." 

Under such conditions, it was idle to expect an 
objective and reasonable, or even decent, handling of 
Balkan questions. Bulgaria was sacrificed ruthlessly 
to opportunism and expediency. The most efficient 
race on the south bank of the Danube was embittered 
and driven into unnatural hostility to Russia. The 
Balkan bloc was disrupted by skilful manipulation of 
national feeling, which was in many cases honest and 
sincere, and thus, the Central Empires were able to 
so dispose the pawns on the European chessboard as 
to facilitate their opening moves, if, from a con- 
tinuance in their policy of expansion, there should 
ensue a European War. 

* The former Austro-Hungarian Foreign Office in Vienna. 



176 OLD EUBOPE'S SUICIDE 

In due course, as was inevitable, the " Great War " 
came. During the latter part of 1913 Great Britain 
had been inclined to favour Eussia's Balkan policy. 
This suited France, and so the sides were set. 
Throughout the war, the British Empire, save for a 
brief and disastrous experiment at Gallipoli, continued 
to be without an Eastern policy. The greatest 
Mohammedan Power in the world allowed itself to be 
swayed by French and Bussian counsels, and the 
heritage handed down and perfected by Warren 
Hastings, Clive, and Canning was left to the mercy 
of events. No Frenchman, however gifted, can grasp 
the scope and mission of the British Empire; to the 
Pan-Slavs who directed Eussia's foreign policy, our 
far-flung supremacy in the East was an object of 
envy and a stumbling block. 

Although the neutral Balkan States, while they 
remained neutral, were courted assiduously by the 
Allied Powers, they were still looked upon as pawns. 
A policy which can only be described as unprincipled 
was pursued. British prestige became the tool of 
French and Eussian intrigue, and Great Britain's 
reputation for tenacity, justice and fair play was 
jeopardised. 

Eumania, once she became our ally, was treated as 
a dependency of Eussia, although the most superficial 
student of the past history of these two States could 
have foreseen her fate. But she, like Servia and 
Greece, was only a little country and counted as small 
dust in the balance. She could be over-run and 
devastated, once she had played her part; that was 
a little country's lot. The frame of mind which, 
subconsciously perhaps, possessed the so-called demo- 
cratic Governments was not so unlike that of the 
actively vicious autocratic Empires; they, too, relied 
on experts and officials, to whom Small States and 
helpless peoples were negligible factors, who respected 



LOOKING BACK & LOOKING FOEWAED 177 

only force and wealth, who viewed human aSairs 
exclusively from those standpoints, and, wrapped in a 
mantle of self-satisfaction, as ignorant of psychology 
as of true statesmanship, could not perceive the 
portents of the times. 

It is possible that historians of the future will select 
three events as the outstanding features of the ' ' Great 
World War " : the participation of the United States of 
America, the Eussian Ee volution, and the collapse of 
the German Military System. The first of these was, 
undoubtedly, an expression of idealism. Cynics may 
say that America was influenced by self-interest, but 
they invariably judge humanity by their own worldly 
standard. The "plain people" of America were 
inspired by nobler sentiments; the measure- of their 
sincerity in the cause of liberty is their present 
disillusionment, caused by the failure of democratic 
Governments to make a democratic peace. The 
intervention of America undoubtedly ensured and 
accelerated the final triumph of the Allies; but it did 
more than that, it solidarised democracy for a brief 
period, and demonstrated the willingness of free people 
to sacrifice their lives and money for an unworldly 
cause. It was, to a great extent, an Anglo-Saxon 
movement, and opened up, till then, undreamt of 
vistas ; it was a light which, although a transient gleam, 
lit up the way for the regeneration of the world. 

The Eussian Eevolution was the outcome of mis- 
government by a corrupt bureaucracy, and the 
passionate desire of an exhausted, suffering population 
for a return to peace. Misconceived by the rest of 
Europe and misdirected by Kerensky, it degenerated 
into civil war; yet it did prove that even the most 
down-trodden people possess the power and instinct 
of self-liberation. 

The collapse of the German Military System removed 
a formidable barrier to human progress. Its efficiency, 



178 OLD EUKOPE'S SUICIDE 

as an administrative and national institution, had 
seemed to justify the glorification of the State at the 
expense of individual freedom; a dangerous example 
had been set which militarists in every land took as a 
model and a giuide. Had Germany been ruled by 
statesmen, this odious system might have gained a 
further lease of life ; by a fortunate fatality it became 
the instrument of its own destruction, it was the sword 
on which Old Europe fell, its very excellence caused 
that finely tempered blade to last until it broke into a 
thousand pieces, thereby providing a conclusive 
revelation of the futility of force. 

Events so portentous should have influenced the 
minds of delegates who were worthy of the name of 
statesmen, when they met to make the Peace at Paris. 
Unfortunately, this was not the case. The same frame 
of mind permeated the Conference as that which had 
existed before and throughout the war. Small States 
and peoples everywhere were sacrificed to the interests 
of the greater victorious Powers, whose spokesmen 
were the representatives and members of a propertied 
and privileged class. Two fears were ever present in 
their minds: Germany, the monster python State, had 
committed suicide, and thus had brought them victory, 
but this victory was so sudden and unexpected that 
they could hardly understand its meaning. They 
imagined that following on it would come a swift 
reaction, that the old system would revive ; in fact, 
they half hoped that it would, it conjured up less 
disturbing visions than this revolt of a warlike, 
disciplined people, this abrupt transition from the old 
order to the new. Even victory had lost its savour; 
it seemed to them a source of danger that the most evil 
Government should fall, and so they set to work 
to recreate the bogy of German militarism with 
propaganda's artful aid. The other bogy was the 
dread that a communistic experiment might succeed in 



LOOKING BACK & LOOKING FOKWAKD 179 

Eussia. Bather than let that happen they were one 
and all prepared to wage another war. 

In an evil hour for democracy, the four heads of the 
Governments of the Allied and Associated States 
appointed themselves as principal delegates at the 
Conference, in spite of the fact that their presence was 
essential in their respective countries, where a host of 
measures dealing with social legislation were already 
long overdue; further, their incompetence, and 
unsuitability for the task before them were manifest, 
and yet, beyond their decisions, there was no real 
appeal. Each of the Big Four had, at one time or 
another, reached place and power as a tribune of the 
people, but when they met in Paris they had under- 
gone a change. Mr. Lloyd George had sold his soul for 
a mess of pottage, in the shape of a Parliamentary 
majority secured by truckling to reactionaries and the 
vulgar clamour of the Jingo Press. Mr. Wilson failed 
to make good his eloquent professions as an apostle of 
democracy ; he succumbed to the atmosphere of Paris, 
and only succeeded in irritating Italy without estab- 
lishing the principles for which he was supposed to 
stand. With two such men in charge of Anglo-Saxon 
policy, the triumph of M. Clemenceau* was not left 
long in doubt. He could count in advance on the 
support of capitalist elements in Great Britain and 
the United States, and thus, the power and wealth of 
the British Empire and America were used by an aged 
Frenchman as a stick to beat helpless, starving 
peoples and to slake a Latin craving for revenge. A 
shaimeful role, indeed, for a race which has never 
known ultimate defeat and has always been 
magnaminous in the hour of victory. 



* During the Conference, a well-known Pole, whose reputation for shrewd 
observation is established, remarked : " Mr. Lloyd George has a passion 
for popularity and is the most popular man in Paris, but the * Tiger * is 
running the British Empire." 



180 OLD EUEOPE'S SUICIDE 

Mr. Lloyd George and President Wilson took back 
to their respective countries a settlement of European 
questions of which no sensible English-speaking citizen 
could possibly approve. It was at best a liquidation 
of the war and marked an intermediate phase. The 
Austro-Hungarian Empire, as an administrative and 
economic unit, has been destroyed, but no attempt has 
yet been made to put anything practical in its place ; 
Eastern and Central Europe have been Balkanised, 
and in the Balkans the evils of the Treaty of Bucharest 
have been consummated; frontiers and disabilities 
have been imposed upon the German people which 
have aroused a widespread irredentism and cannot be 
maintained; the policy of intervention against the 
Soviet Government in Eussia has been immoral and 
inept, while the vacillation in regard to Turkey cannot 
fail to have serious repercussion throughout the whole 
Mohammedan world. 

A state of moral anarchy has been created, both in 
the conquered and victorious States. In France, sane 
opinion is unable to control the activities of roving 
generals obsessed with the Napoleonic legend; in the 
United States the general tendency is to leave Europe 
to its fate, but disgust with European diplomatic 
methods has not prevented certain forms of imitation — 
temporarily a militarised America is handling internal 
problems on Eussian lines in the worst days of Czarist 
rule; in Great Britain, irresponsible politicians have 
brought discredit on our Parliamentary system, the 
House of Commons does not represent the more serious 
elements in the country, Labour is restless and 
dissatisfied, and even moderate men are tempted to 
resort to unconstitutional methods, to " direct action," 
as the only means of obtaining recognition for the 
workers' reasonable demands. 

The decisions of the Supreme Council of the Allies 
are without any moral sanction because, owing, to its 



LOOKING BACK & LOOKING FORWARD 181 

past acts, the moral sense of xne entire world is 
blunted. Revolution is threatening throughout Central 
and Eastern Europe; around and beyond the mam 
centres of infection, the poison » spreading to the 
world's remotest parts; India and Northern Africa are 
filled with vague but menacing unrest. When the 
lassitude of war is passed, more serious developments 
must be expected: D'Annunzio and Bermondt are but 
the forerunners of many similar adventurers who both 
in Europe and in Asia, will find fr lowersand funds 
Truly Old Europe has committed suicide, lhe 
autocratic Empires have perished by the sword; the 
Western States, under the rule of spurious democrats, 
bid fair to perish by the Peace. Democracy has been 
betrayed by its own ignorance and apathy, by 
misplaced confidence in mediocre men, by failure to 
be democratic, by permitting politicians and official, 
to usurp the people's sovereign power. 

A new danger is on the horizon The men who 
scoffed at progress, who at first derided the League of 
Nations, and to whose influence were due the prolonga- 
tion of the Armistice and the worst features ol the 
Treaties, are alarmed by the present situation lhe 
official mind is seeking for a remedy, and it now 
professes to have found it in the " League of Nations 
to which it does lip-service, meaning to use it, in the 
first place, as a buffer, and later as an instrument 
These men do not recognise that with the downfall ol 
the autocratic Empires materialism m its most 
efficient form has proved a failure; the fallen fortunes 
of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia convey no 
warning to them; they think that once again the 
public can be tricked; they have made a German peace 
and are so blind to facts that, in spite of the testimony 
of Ludendorff, they do not realise that victory was 
gained by peoples, who were unconquerable because 
they thought their cause was just. Theirs is the- 



182 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

frame of mind of German ' ' Junkers " ; to them the 
masses are like cattle, to be driven in a herd; they will, 
if given a free rein, once more subserve the interests 
of capitalists, and Governments will be influenced by 
men who, having great possessions, will take counsel 
of selfish fears. 

A League which includes Liberia and excludes 
Germany, Austria, Hungary and Eussia, and whose 
covenant is embodied in the Peace Treaties, makes a 
bad start. The intention has been expressed of inviting 
Germany, at some future date, to become a member of 
the League. Whether this invitation will be accepted 
will depend on circumstances; in Europe's present 
state of instability the omens are far from favourable 
to acceptance. A truly democratic Germany will be 
a tremendous force in Europe, and may find in Eussia, 
under a Soviet Government, an ally more in sympathy 
with progress than either Great Britain or the Latin 
Powers under reactionary governments. The Eussians, 
once our allies, regard the French and British with 
hatred and resentment, and these same feelings 
animate all the nationalities on whom have been forced 
insulting, terms of Peace. Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, 
Yougo-Slavia and the Greater Eumania are political 
experiments. These States contain men of great 
ability, who may, in the abstract, accept the principles 
of the League, but their position is neither safe nor 
oasy ; in no single case can national aspirations obtain 
full satisfaction without impinging on the territory of 
a neighbour, on each and every frontier fixed in Paris 
there is a pocket in dispute. It is doubtful whether 
any of the small Allied States can be considered trust- 
worthy members of a League, which, while preaching 
internationalism, has perverted nationalism into a 
" will to power," for which conditions of membership 
are defined by conquerors whose conduct hitherto has 
revealed an entire lack of an international spirit, save 



LOOKING BACK & LOOKING FORWARD 183 

in regard to international finance. So many tempta- 
tions°to recalcitrance exist that, if Germany remains 
outside the League, another combination might be 
formed, under German leadership, and mcludmg 
Russia, Austria, Hungary, one or more small Mates 
and Bulgaria, a combination untrammelled by sell- 
denying ordinances, compact, almost continuous, 
controlling the land routes of two continents. No 
limitation of its armaments could be enforced on such 
a combination; it would have access to Russia s vast 
natural resources, and, if war came, for the farst 
time in history, a coalition of belligerent States would 
be impervious to blockade by sea. 

While the Treaties stand, and while the present 
frame of mind of the Allied Governments continues, 
such is the situation into which the world is drifting, 
and for which the Covenant of the League, as drafted, 
provides no panacea. Even the leading members of that 
League are dubious adherents to its moral implications; 
each of them makes some reservation, not based on 
the principles of progress, but inspired by a distorted 
sense of patriotism which, in its essence, is the out- 
come and cult of private interests., , 

The League of Nations was unfortunate in its birth- 
place Throughout the Conference the frenzied 
merriment in Paris was typical of the cosmopolitan 
class which has grown up in an industrial age. These 
parasites on the wealth of nations possess neither the 
spirit of nobless oblige nor any sympathy with the 
masses and yet they influence affairs; they appear 
light and frivolous, as though they had no interest m 
life beyond dancing and feasting on the rums ot Old 
Europe, and deadening reflection with the discords ot 
jazz bands; but behind these puppets in ihe show are 
cold and calculating men, who use " Society and the 
atmosphere it creates to kill enthusiasm, to fetter and 
sensualise weaker minds. After listening to the 



184 OLD EUEOPE'S SUICIDE 

conversation at a semi-official and fashionable gather- 
ing last June in Paris, a French priest pronounced the 
opinion that only a second redemption could save the 
world. This old man was always charitable in his 
judgments. He had heard the confessions of many 
sinners, but had been roused to moral indignation by 
the heartless cynicism of the talk around him; his 
feelings as a Christian had been outraged, and, although 
this remark was made simply and without affectation, 
it rang like the denunciation of a prophet, the speaker's 
kind eyes kindled and his small, frail body seemed to 
grow in size. My mind went back to the Cathedral 
Church at Jassy one Easter Eve. There, for a time, 
had reigned the proper spirit; it had been fugitive, 
like all such moods. As Eenan says: " On n'atteint 
V ideal qu'un moment."* 

If Europe is not to relapse into a race of armaments, 
world politics must be controlled by forces less selfish 
and insidious. A more serious element is required in 
public life, an element which will represent the 
innumerable men and women who work with their 
hands and brains. These are the people who desire 
peace, who find and seek no profit in a state of 
war. They are neither revolutionaries nor faddists, 
they are workers ; and in Iheir ranks are not a few who 
have attained to fame and fortune by a rare combina- 
tion of heart and intellectual gifts. They protest 
against the Treaties as a flagrant violation of all 
principles of right, as an attempt to crush the spirit 
of the conquered peoples, to visit the crimes of 
''irresponsible Governments" on the heads of 
innocents; they denounce a policy in Eussia which 
makes the Eussian people pariahs, and despise the 
men who, before peace had been ratified with Germany, 
invited collaboration in the blockade of Eussia from 

* The ideal is reached lor a moment only. 



LOOKING BACK & LOOKING FOBWA'KD 185 

the men they had called the Huns. " Plain People " 
in all lands echo these sentiments. They are weary of 
being misrepresented by reactionary Governments, of 
having their feelings misinterpreted by officials caught 
up in the vortex of " Society " and by unscrupulous 
journalists, who have waxed fat by preaching hatred 
and have battened on slaughter like birds of prey. 

A great fact in evolution has occurred. Humanity is 
at the parting of the ways. Old Europe's suicide will 
culminate in world-wide chaos, unless democracy 
asserts itself and counsels of wisdom and sanity 
prevail. Mankind can be rescued from degeneration, 
if out of the strong there comes forth sweetness, if 
races possessed of strength determine, in this hour of 
trial, to shed on those who walk in darkness a clear and 
kindly light. Force, applied physically, has proved 
futile, but moral force remains, whose application is 
by example, not by precept, which may involve 
temporary sacrifices, but which lays sure foundations 
whereon to build. 

To all the English-speaking peoples this moral force 
is no new weapon. We have applied it in regard to 
slavery; " Clemency " Canning proved its potency in 
India, when, in a time of grave disorder, he refused to 
rule in anger and put his veto on harsh or ill-considered 
acts; later, true statesmanship and morality inspired 
our treatment of the conquered Boers. All these are 
records which illuminate the pages of our adventurous 
and storied past. 

Unfortunately, in recent times the spirit of which 
such policies are born has suffered an eclipse. Great 
Britain has had no continental policy, the British 
Government has worked in leading-strings, and, as a 
consequence, our Empire has been imperilled and our 
honour has been betrayed. 

The English-speaking peoples are now at the summit 
of their power, they are already leagues of States, and 



186 OLD EUROPE'S SUICIDE 

could, and should, be the champions of democracy; 
but first they must set their own houses in good order, 
for charity begins at home. 

No covenant or piece of parchment will hold together 
discontented nations. Industrial peace in each and 
every State must be the prelude to international good- 
will. Both in our Empire and America the forces of 
reaction are obdurate and strong, but it is possible to 
overcome them by constitutional means. The English- 
speaking peoples are, at heart, profoundly democratic ; 
it is the instinct of our race. A two-fold mission lies 
before us : first, we must liberate ourselves and cleanse 
our own Augean stables; then we can work together, 
and make an irresistible appeal to the leaders of 
democracy in other lands, inviting them to join with 
us in a great League of democratic nations, from which 
would be excluded only the backward States. 

A policy such as that outlined would not be one of 
" splendid isolation," nor, on the other hand, 
would the English-speaking peoples subordinate their 
instincts and their principles to bolstering up old- 
fashioned shibboleths, to re-establishing a " Balance 
of Power " or any other artificial system which haunts 
official minds. It would revise pernicious treaties, and 
study with sympathy and knowledge vexed ethnical and 
economic questions, striving to heal still gaping wounds 
for which no remedy has been found in treaties mis- 
named " of peace." It would recognise the rights of 
nationalities everywhere, and not limit the sovereign 
independence of the Small States which we have 
hitherto exploited. The representatives of the English- 
speaking races would be encouraged to be good 
Europeans, but neither patrons nor partisans. It 
would approach the Russian people, under its chosen 
form of Government, and help in the restoration of 
law and order, instead of fomenting civil war. It would 
be free from social and capitalistic shackles, and 



LOOKING BACK & LOOKING FOBWAKD 187 

represent the views of those who know the dignity of 
work. 

Time cresses. The reaction of foreign policy on the 
intend Eof every State is becoming increasingly 
dteT In aU lands the working classes have 
XSnedte the fact that their interests «e the^ame 
and the feeling is almost universal that, ffom tne 
workers' pomt of view, the greatest war in history was 
I'^internecine struggle and has been fought in vam. 
This Sssion is strengthened by the suspicion that 
the oki discredited methods are being followed that 
he destinies of peoples are still at the mercy of_ secret 
mnlomacv that sinister motives, and not patriotism, 
StHhe nreaching of race hatred, that reactionary 
forces? both m the Press and politics, have gained the 
upper hand. 

Industrial and international peace will be precarious 
whde present conditions last. Peace Treaties have 
teen signed, but slaughter and terrorism continue. In 
Central Europe, great rivers, which are serene and 
SSd highways 8 are still defiled. -jfajg"" ^ 
still serve as barriers and are charged with sighs a 
clamour of voices has arisen, the cry is forward 

^ uttered by millions of distracted, = erated 
noonle become articulate since the war irom eveiy 
P -r 6 c omes the tramp <>f hurrying feet, a mighty 
movement is in progress, ±w wn(7 p. 

they lead want to be masters of their fate^ to share 
rnntml and as free men and women, to turn the new 
world's mm. AH lovers of freedom are in tins move- 



188 OLD EUBOPE'S SUICIDE 

ment, the prerogative of the English-speaking peoples 
is to direct and purify it, their place is in the van. 
•* * * * 

Egyptian monarchs built pyramids as tombs; Old 
Europe, during the process of its suicide, built up a 
pyramid of errors which may well serve, not only as 
the tomb of mediaeval systems, of false conceptions, 
but also as a monument to remind succeeding 
generations of the errors of the past. 

A pyramid is a structure whose form is final, just 
bare, blank walls converging to a point, and there it 
ends, offering a symbol of that human pride which 
dares to set a limit to the progress of mankind. 

Progress admits of no finality. Filled with the 
sentiment of progress and standing on the ground of 
fact, humanity can look forward and ever upward, and 
thus can rear a nobler edifice — a temple broad-based on 
liberty and justice, whose columns are poised on sure 
foundations, columns that soar and spring eternal, 
emblems of youth and hope. 



The National Labour Press, Ltd., Manchester and London. 30647 



